Behind the Firewall
by The Assassin's mentor
Summary: Everyone is gullible, not seeing the stitching going on behind the curtains. Sometimes, there are things that aren't meant to be seen. Secrets come with a cost, yet we never take full account on it. But these things never stopped Aiden from his crusade of revenge. Driven by hidden rage within his body, he aims to protect the rest of his loved ones and punish, one person at a time.
1. Chapter 1: The Vigilante

Chapter 1

* * *

**A/N: Yep, another crossover for the RWBY archives. This time, it's a game that came out that I really love. Watch_Dogs. I know, some people may think it sucks or it's not a great game. Your opinion, that's fine. **

**So, since the world of RWBY is so high tech and in Watch_Dogs is hacking into digital interfaces and systems, I thought, what would happen if someone with the power like Aiden Pearce has the access to do whatever he likes in the world?**

**Slight changes to the main character and story. Aiden is a lot more younger in the story. Instead of being 38 years old, he's 20 years younger.**

**The plot will integrate into the Watch_Dogs storyline but will mostly follow my own story plot.**

**Like it, alright. Don't like it, no harm no foul.**

* * *

_Take a look around you. What do you see? Nothing? Take a closer look around you if you were at school or in a public area. What is the thing you see the most. Surrounding all of us is technology. Smartphones, laptops, and even our cars are powered by digital data._

_Most people think that their electronic devices and themselves are protected and safe. But sometimes, all it takes is the simple press of a button, and everything they have has been compromised or stolen. Your phone could be hacked in an instant, data and personal information about you stolen for either advantages or personal gain._

_But that's just on one thing. An individual. But what happens when everything is connected? What happens if someone was able to hack into the entire system and do whatever he likes?_

_Nothing is completely black or white. Just mini shades of grey._

* * *

The streets of downtown Vale were relatively subtle as evening fell. But there was still some activity going on as shops started opening for the evening period as the daytime shops closed up with the usual traffic going down the streets.

Summer was coming to an end, only a dozen days left to enjoy the last few days of the summer break for students or relaxation for workers in the bustling city. People were still trying to enjoy what was left of their break before going back to their daily routines in life.

Yet, most people aren't careful if something horrific happens. Peace and good life makes a person blind, not knowing what will come to them.

Inside a the Hotel Mir deep in downtown Vale, people were in the lobby relaxing, chatting, and most importantly, on their electronic devices.

A woman just recently got her hotel keycard and was proceeding to go upstairs to the upper floors. Just before she made it into the elevator, a man purposefully bumped into her causing her to glare at him with cold daggers.

The man just smiled at her like nothing happened. Tipping his dark brown baseball cap at her, he continued to walk down to the lobby of the Mir. Looking around that no one was looking, despite the lounge being full of people, no one was paying attention to the man standing in the middle of the area. "Okay I'm in the lobby of the Mir," he said into his earpiece.

"All right, Shaun. Let's do it."

The man took out his phone and turned it on. He went on to the Mir Hotel app on his phone and went to the connections. He tapped onto the ADMIN connections.

Only a small amount of people have authorization to access the ADMIN connections. He didn't. But he's no ordinary person.

His phone started bypassing the the firewall of the ADMIN to breach it. It logged into the app of the hotel and already secured itself on the connection. After a moment, the word "Execute" appeared on the screen of the phone. A hexagon appeared and the words "Login" came in. A couple seconds passed and his phone started connecting into all the digital devices in the system of the Mir. Phones, laptops, and ATMs were being hacked in an instant and were being sent to a different location.

"Look at that. Secrets and lies floating in a cloud of data. I just reach out, pluck it from the sky. And it's mine," Shaun's contact said in the earpiece. Shaun shook his head when he heard slight glee coming from him.

"It's ours. Stay focused," Shaun reminded him. He checked his phone to see that he has hacked into the core router of the hotel by now and is now siphoning money from the oblivious people inside the lobby. "They've got a nasty security system. How much we got?" Shaun asked his contact for the update on the money.

On his contact's side, his computer monitor was filling up with information, personal info on the various people. His eyes widened more with glee as the numbers on the money rose quickly and steadily. "A hundred grand in thirty seconds. God bless the rich and famous!" he said back to the hacker. "We are the modern day magicians. Siphoning bank accounts out of thin air with ease. And who says that earning money is hard?"

Shaun scoffed at his contact's words as he looked up at a security camera that he has already hacked into before setting foot inside. "Do you hear yourself?"

Everything was running smoothly for the next few moments. Money was being siphoned and no one has figured out the breach into the network yet. Shaun's contact was monitoring the siphoning until a high-pitch sound went off. "What was that?" Shaun asked.

On the screen, there was a warning on it on the data cloud.

**WARNING! Unknown Device Detected**

"Hello... I think someone else is hacking it. Let's take a peek," said the contact as his hands glided over the keyboard. He typed in commands and started tracing the breach within the system they were in.

"Let's not. Stick to the plan, Damien. Siphon the accounts then get out," Shaun shot back at his friend, not wanting to stick around after this for long. BY now, the ctOS system would've kicked in and would see that there was a breach in the system. Surely the cops and local security would be notified and would try to shut down the system.

Damien continued to trace the other hacker's trace as the system was starting to lag slightly from the activity they were doing. Not so much that in his liking, things could get done at least. "Adventure, Shaun! Have faith in your friend. Something triggered that alarm. Let's find it."

"Damien, wait-! Wait, are you seeing this?" Shaun said in complete surprise, seeing what the other hacker has done and what the ctOS system was doing. "Shit. They're scanning the system. Worse yet is that unknown hacker has implanted a virus into the system. It's eating away at the data."

"Fuck! Shaun, can you try to slow down the ctOS system from finding us? I'll see what I can do about the virus," Damien said to Shaun as he started typing quickly into the computer.

"I'll try, Damien. But I don't know how long I can keep the ctOS off our asses. Hurry it up. Maybe try cloning the system and have the virus eat off that. That should buy us some time to complete this job," Shaun suggested as he started flicking through his phone and started downloading data for some decoys.

"But that is just a fifty fifty scenario."

"Just do it, see what you can do to salvage what you can," Shaun said to his friend before placing out the decoys along the network.

Damien kept on typing, his speed increasing as the keys on the keyboard started letting out tiny squeaks from the pressure as he started the process of cloning the system. "Come on! I know you can do it! Just need a little more data!" he cursed silently as the virus rapidly deleted large portions of the system, creating more lag inside. He pressed on as he typed in his final command and pressed the "Enter" button. "Alright, I cloned the system, Shaun."

"Good, now quickly place it on an external hard drive. But don;t take it out. Create a path for the virus to follow into and lock it in. It'll eat the cloned system while we still have the rest of the system here to siphon from," Shaun explained quickly.

Damien plugged in a memory stick into a laptop connected to his computer and started rerouting a path for the virus to follow into the laptop. He looked back on the monitor and gritted his teeth hard when he saw that the unknown hacker has left the system with the words "Good luck, you're gonna need it". "God dammit! Shaun! The hacker left the system!"

"Nevermind the hacker, did you reroute a path for the virus yet?" Shaun said calmly to his friend. He saw that the ctOS system was looking into the decoy systems he placed were burning quickly. "We're running out of time, Damien!"

"I'm almost done! Give me a second... got it! I put the second system in front of the real one so the virus can get into it and I can place it into the hard drive!"

The two hackers saw that the virus was routing itself into the cloned system of the Mir and started to take over it. As fast as his fingers could type, Damien quickly cut off the connection of he virus from the original system as it made it's way into the hard drive, doing its deleting job.

Shaun leaned himself against a wall and looked up at his phone. "Oh shit. Damien, hurry up, the ctOS is burning through my decoys. How's the system looking?"

"The virus only took out at least twenty-two percent of the system. My computer is saying that there is still huge traces left from the virus. Maybe I can-"

Shaun's phone screen started to flash red and his eyes widened.

**WARNING! CtOS is now tracing the system**

"Damien. I guess ctOS has finished with my decoys. I'm shutting down now," Shaun replied to Damien. Leaning off the wall, he began to walk towards the doors while pulling up his neckwarmer sweater over mouth and above his nose.

"Don't you touch a thing!" Damien shot back. "I can-" he started before he heard a chime go off on his screen. He observed the screen and saw a humanoid figure on screen before dispersing into particles. "What the hell is that?"

Shaun picked up his pace towards the lobby doors. "We need to abort," he answered harshly at his friend. He looked over his shoulder and saw a security guard placing a finger on his earpiece. Shaun tapped an app on his phone and tapped into the communications of the guard.

"**It seems like we have a suspect here. I may need some help to apprehend him."**

"We're out of time. I gotta go," Shaun simply said to Damien, eagerly quickening his pace more.

"We are not done! Help me!" Damien shot back at him. "I can do this. I just need time!"

"Damien, it's over. I'm disconnecting."

Damien slammed his hands to the sides of the keyboard. "Shaun! Don't!"

"I'm sorry, Damien." Shaun bright up his phone and severed the connections to the system and ran out of the hotel before anyone, asides from the guard, noticed his presence.

This action would cost something dear to him.

* * *

_Undisclosed location..._

A man was seated in front of a computer screen. Hearing that the Mir job was unsuccessful, he moved the mouse across the screen to an email. He clicked on it and dragged the mouse to the link attached to it.

He pulled up a list of contacts and clicked on the one named "Maurice." After a moment, the phone was picked up. "Maurice."

"Yeah?" Maurice answered back.

"You're on. One of our contractors ran a search for the hackers in the Mir job." The man clicked on a download file and got two profile data files. It was the files of Damien and Shaun, the two hackers. "You're assigned Shaun Pearce. Take him out. Hit the family if you need to. This guy's hacking days are done."

"Hit the family?" Maurice asked.

"That a problem?"

"Nope. I'll scare them good. You'll never hear from him again."

**File subject: **Shaun Pearce

**Age: **35

**Nationality: **Irish American

**Martial Status: **Widowed

**Children: **Jun 15, Aiden 17, Nicole 16

**Salary: **Unknown

**Criminal Record: **11 months, assault, drunk driving, illegally hacking into system networks.

**Last Known Loc: **Mir Hotel, Vale, Vytal, Remnant

* * *

_11 months later..._

"_**Vigilante or Criminal?"**_

**For the past eleven months, reports of a masked vigilante have been rising quickly. The victims of crimes ranging from simple muggings to armed store robbery's say that they have been saved by some hero who seems to come out of nowhere and disappears as soon as he comes.**

**The Vale Police Department are still in the dark on how fast this person has stopped these events. Seeing either a bullet wound in suspects legs or bruise marks adorned on their heads and arms, they say that this isn't how justice should be dispensed. "We don't know his true intentions, but vigilantes are vigilantes, they work outside of the law and do justice they see fit rather than letting us and the ctOS system doing our jobs," Police Chief Orion states in an interview. As of last month, police are issuing a warrant and any information on this person.**

**In the stories of the victims, they said that the masked hero that saved them showed skills that only a Hunter can have, saying that he can go toe-to-toe with a highly seasoned Hunter.**

**One victim said that it was like the masked hero, also known as 'The Vigilante', was like a guardian angle that took down the suspects that tried to rob him in his store before he could even thank him.**

**So far, the citizens of Vale are thankful that someone is cleansing justice on the streets. Even though the ctOS system has made crime go down at a steady rate, they can walk down the streets feeling safe, that a person is out there taking down criminals, one man at a time.**

**This is the Vale News Network.**

* * *

In a changing room inside a stadium housing the most current fighting tournament between Vytal and Atlas, Maurice was thrown across the room. Blood was dripping out of a cut above his left eye and from his lower lip. He crawled away from the man that threw him and looked at him. "You gotta believe me man," he pleaded.

The man loomed over him as he stared straight into his eyes, burning holes into his head. He was actually a man in his late-teens. He had light peach skin, green eyes that stuck out brown mid-length hair and light facial hair across his face. He stood at least 6'2 with a mesomorphic build. He was dressed in a gray, long-sleeved, zip-neck sweater untucked. Over top his sweater was a brown knee-length trench coat and was wearing dark grey trousers with brown boots. He wore a dark brown baseball cap with a a grey neckwarmer around his neck. "Who gave the order?' he asked in a deep, gravelly voice.

Maurice went on his knees and faced his interrogator. "Come on, I told you... I don't know!" he shouted.

"Oh you don't know?" The man in the trench coat walked over to him and took out his phone and went on to a recording. He turned up the volume and pointed it at him.

"_Hit the family?"_

"_That a problem?"_

"_Nope. I'll scare them good. You'll never hear from him again."_

Maurice's eyes widened in fear and he tried to crawl away from the man. The teen grabbed him by the collar and lifted him up. "So what do you think, Maurice? Did you scare my father?!" he shouted as he threw him towards the equipment.

Maurice got his head hit on the metal and fell on the ground. He got back up and faced him. "Who are you?"

"You don't remember?" the teen asked politely. He took the silence from Maurice as a "no". "You don't remember two kids sitting in the backseats when you shot at a car? You don't remember that?"

"It was a job, man. I didn't know," Maurice replied.

The teen knelt down beside Maurice and looked at him while having a hand go near his neck. "Who was on the other end of the call. Give me a name," he demanded.

"They never gave me a name!"

The teen's eyes darkened at Maurice. "Yeah, I'll give you a name." He grabbed him by the throat and squeezed hard. Shaun. Jun. Shaun and Jun Pearce." He kept his grip around Maurice's neck for a few seconds before letting go. Maurice gasping for air.

A moment went by before Maurice recovered from the choke hold. "I didn't know about any kids alright... that wasn't supposed to happen."

The teen pointed a finger at his face. "I want you to think very carefully. Think."

"Look man... even if I knew a name, you couldn't get me talking," Maurice replied to him. "These guys, I heard stories, man. They're like nothing you've ever seen before. You gotta walk away from this, man."

"Yeah, well somethings you can't walk away from," the teen said before standing up, unholstering a 9mm pistol from behind him. A flashback of the car crash went through his head as he faced Maurice, phantom emotional and physical pain surged through him. "Who gave the order?" he demanded again.

Maurice was filled with fear. It was going through him like a poison as it spread through out his body. "I spoke to him on the phone, he told me where to find you!" Maurice replied. He started sobbing hard as tears streamed down his face. "That's all I know, man!. That's all I know!'

The teen gritted his teeth at him, bearing them at Maurice. "Give me a a name."

"I don't know!" Maurice shouted before curling up into a ball and huddled on the ground.

"A name!"

"Kill me, man! Just fucking kill me!"

The teen aimed the pistol at his head and shook his head. He pulled the trigger and the bolt went back. The empty click of the hammer went off and no sound went off. "How's you memory now?" he said as he turned his back to Maurice and holstered his pistol.

Maurice saw a metal pole beside him and grabbed it. He stood up and ran towards the teen. The teen took out a nightstick from his coat and extended it. He went down and hit Maurice hard at his left leg, just behind the knee. Maurice knelt down before the teen brought the nightstick down on his head. Maurice fell on the floor and held his hands up before he got smacked hard in the head again. The teen let out an irritated sigh and pushed his nightstick in and stuffed it into his pocket.

"What a waste of my time," the teen muttered out at him. He then saw Maurice's phone on the ground next to said unconscious person. "Maurice won't talk to me, but I'll bet he talked to you..." He pulled out his phone and hacked into Maurice's phone with ease. He saw an audio log within the phone and didn't hesitate to hack into it to listen in.

_**"I can't keep running," Maurice panted heavily as if he ran a 10k marathon. "I can't do it. That fucking Aiden Pearce. I killed his father and brother. He won't stop chasing me," he said with choked sobs. "Who is this guy? What Am I gonna do? He keeps coming!"**_

The teen, now known as Aiden Pearce, shook his head in disappointment and put his phone back in his pocket. "I need to keep moving," he said. He went out the room and into the hallway. He heard footsteps coming from the corridor to the left and sighed.

A man in a grey hoodie and red pants came in with a cheery expression on his face. "Yo Maurice... yo, what's shaking motherfuck.." he froze in place when he saw Aiden in front of him. "Oh, shit...!" he exclaimed as he took out a pistol and aimed it at him.

Aiden raised his hands and looked beyond the scared man. "Where the hell you been?' he asked.

"What?" the hooded man questioned.

"He's talking to me," a voice said behind the man. He turned around to see who it was. An arm wrapped around the one that carried the pistol and shoved a knife underneath his ribcage. The man let out a grunt of pain as he lost grip to the firearm. The man was wearing a grey business suit and pants with a blood red dress shirt underneath, black leather gloves and grey leather shoes. The man who stabbed the hooded man slowly set him down as he faced Aiden. "I leave you for two minutes..." he started saying to him.

Aiden walked up to him and unholstered his pistol with his left hand outstretched. "Gimme my bullets."

"I tossed them," the man said to him calmly as he removed the knife from the limp thug. He looked at Aiden who had a face with irritation and confusion itched to it. "What? You said you'd kill him otherwise," he said. He walked over to a body behind Aiden and propped him up on the wall.

"I told you to hold on to them, Jordi," Aiden said to him. He walked into the centre of the intersection of the hallway and looked both ways for any other thugs. "Where you been anyway?" he asked Jordi.

"I had to make a call. And you get what need from Maurice?" Jordi asked the hacker. Aiden bit his lip and looked up to the ceiling before looking down shaking his head slightly. "Aw, you're kidding me."

Aiden turned around to face Jordi and holstered his pistol. "Let's clean this mess up. Stop admiring your work," he said sternly to the business man.

"Hey, that's cute and all but I'm disappointed, Pearce. I mean, you failed to spot the nasty inter-gang drama I'm creating here."

Aiden shook his head at him. "I don't like loose ends. Let's get him out of here."

Jordi bent down and picked up the thugs gun. "No, too late. Bottom of the eighth, Vytal's ahead. Tournament's almost over." He placed the gun in the thug's lifeless hand and aimed it at the body he propped up earlier. "We are out of time," he said and pulled the trigger. It nailed the body in the head and he dropped the pistol. "Nice shot," he said to the limp body and patted his arm. He then faced the irritated hacker in front of him. Rubbing his hands together, he walked towards the hacker and sighed. " Come on, you're not just a little interested in my phone call?" he asked.

Aiden scoffed at Jordi and shook his head. "All right, fine. Tell me about your phone call."

"Glad you asked." He motioned his hands to the dead bodies. "Okay, we got a bunch of dead bodies right?" He pointed to the ceiling. "We got 40,000 people above us. We need a distraction." Jordi crossed his arms and faced Aiden. "I called the cops."

On the outside, Aiden was completely calm and collected. But inside, he was shouting and cursing every word he knows towards Jordi. "You didn't."

"Oh yeah, true story. So cops arrive... and Maurice's little band of brothers arrive... and pow, pow, pow, pow, pow," he said as he pressed his two index fingers together.

"Jordi, tell me you're joking."

"No, no, I called them too." The business man sighed at the frustrated hacker in front of him. "Look, we got a messy altercation at the end of the fights. You and I slip away undetected. You'll appreciate the plan tomorrow."

A few moments passed as the got rid of the bodies until a voice went out that made Aiden groan and wanted to hack into Jordi's phone and erase everything the guy had in it. "Suspects are believed armed. Approach cautiously."

"Great. Punctual cops. I'm gonna handle these guys. You grab Maurice, get him outta here," he said to Jordi.

"Maurice? What do I look like, a chauffuer?" he questioned the hacker.

Aiden turned around to faced the business man with cold daggers. "He's the shooter, I'm not through with him yet." He turned around and pulled up his neckwarmer over his face to the bridge of his nose and walked away.

"Dick..." Jordi muttered out.

* * *

_Later..._

Aiden reached the common hallways of the arena and made it to two glass doors shut tight by the security system with two cops behind them. He tapped on his earpiece and turned on his phone. "Badboy. The police are about to lock this whole place down. I'm stuck unless we create a major distraction. I want to cut the power and slip past them," he said to his contact.

"To the whole stadium? I thought you wanted to keep "the Vigilante" out of the news. Everything is connected to the ctOS with a serious firewall," a distorted masculine voice replied.

"Right now I need to get out of the stadium. Can you find me the nearest access point?" he asked Badboy.

"In the next room. But you'll need someone with security clearance," Badboy answered before cutting off the connection.

"Security guard should have access. With all these cops, there's gotta be one around," Aiden said. Hacking into the next rooms security cameras, he used his phone's Profiler system and looked at each of the guards. He found one with the access codes and hacked into them. He immediately pulled up his phone and hacked his way to the stadium's router. After doing so, he executed a blackout.

The lights started to flicker before shutting down. The floodlights on the stage went out like a candle flame as the rest of the lights went out. People started screaming in fear as the darkness engulfed them. The doors opened for Aiden and he sneaked past the cops.

His opened his phone and contacted Jordi. "Where are you, Jordi?"

"What? Gone. I"m allergic to cops. So's Maurice. But don't worry. I left you a present. Friend of a friend deals pre-owned cars. Got a real beauty waiting for you in the garage across the street. Take it or leave it. I don't really care," Jordi said before disconnecting.

Aiden exited the stadium and walked across the street as the blackout was still going on. He kept his neckwarmer up as he went through an alleyway towards the garage Jordi talked about. The lights finally came back on when he reached the garage. He entered to see a red sports car. "I guess Jordi was being nice this time," Aiden said. He entered the car and turned the engine on. He left the garage and drove out. "Gotta leave the area near the stadium."

* * *

_A few minutes later..._

Aiden started to drive more slowly as he started to near his destination. "I needed this bad. I've finally got the goddamned triggerman! I just need to break through... but how?" Aiden mumbled out as he turned a corner on the highway. "I pushed Maurice hard, torture's not going to work on this guy- so I need to get inside his head. That guilt is eating him up. I'll give him a couple days... I bet he'll start reaching out."

A few minutes passed by and he reached a motel. He parked the car in the parking lot and walked up the stairs to his room. He went inside his motel room and let out a tired sigh. Computer monitors were hooked up to the walls and were connected by wires that never seemed to end. A projector screen was projecting cases and leads that he has gotten in the past months.

He connected his phone in to the main computer and went to the keyboard. He went to the audio file Maurice had and listened.

_"These guys, I heard stories, man. They're like nothing you've ever seen before. You gotta walk away from this, man."_

He then went to type in "Live video feed" and a screen popped up with video feed of his sister, Nicole Pearce, and his two cousins, Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long, at Beacon academy. They were in the dorm room of team RWBY and were talking about a certain hacker.

"Do you think Aiden is doing alright?" Ruby asked as she hanged upside down from her bed.

"I'm sure he's alright, Ruby, Aiden's a tough guy. He's been through a lot of trouble," Nicole said to her cousin as she flipped through her book.

"Is he coming to my birthday tomorrow?" the younger asked.

"Of course he's coming, Rubes!" Yang shouted as she blew away a stray hair strand from her face.

"But's it's been almost a year since we saw him. I can't just help but worry," Ruby said.

Aiden sighed before typing in to another video surveillance. He smiled when he saw her. Her familiar brown rabbit ears adorned on her head as she sat on her bed. He dark brown eyes looking up to the ceiling as he brown hair splashed over her face. "I really miss you, Velvet," Aiden said before going away from the monitor. He walked over to the wall with the projection of his leads and stared at them. He felt rage take over him when memories played through his head again. He punched the wall and had a lone tear go down his cheek.

"I need some sleep. I'll be at Beacon tomorrow anyway." He walked over to his bed and sat himself on it. He took off his baseball cap and placed it on the nightstand beside him. He laid himself on the bed and propped an arm on his forehead. "At least I'll be seeing Velvet again. It's been what, three months since the last time we spoke? And that was when she was on break from Beacon." He smiled at the thoughts of her and closed his eyes.


	2. Chapter 2: Family Reunions

Chapter 2

**A/N: Thank you for all the support and liking you've given this story. It really helps out and motivates me to keep on writing.**

**I know I have other stories out there but I'm currently having writers block with them. I'm not abandoning them, just focusing on this story and probably finishing it before the other stories.**

**A heads up, slight changes to a couple characters in both Watch_Dogs and RWBY here and into the future chapters.**

**Enough of my rambling, enjoy the story!**

**Reviews are appreciated.**

* * *

The shadows and lights seemed to mix together as the car drove down in the tunnel between the downtown district of Vale to the Hunter's Solitude district. The black sedan was going down the road with the usual traffic going down the road.

"C'mon dad, where are we going?" a masculine voice asked from the backseat.

Shaun chuckled from the driver's seat as he cut in front of a car. "It's a surprise, Jun. After all, Aiden chose the place for guy's night," he said to his son.

Jun leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms while glaring at Aiden who was beside him. He stuck his tongue out at him before letting out a frustrated sigh. Aiden laughed at his little brother. Without warning, Aiden lashed his arms out and wrapped his brother's head in them while grinding his right fist into his forehead. "Next time, little brother," he said as his brother squirmed in his arms.

"A-Aiden! Let go! Can't... breath!" Jun croaked at him. Aiden immediately let go of Jun who was gasping for air. He gave his older brother a death stare before laughing as well. "I'll get you next time!"

"Yeah, I'm at Beacon and you still have Signal to go to. Maybe we can spar tomorrow, Jun," Aiden said to him before leaning back into his own seat.

"But you can just beat me with a nightstick while I have a sword and shield!" Jun pouted.

Aiden just took in a deep breath and looked out the window of his side. He watched the lights pass by while they went by a couple cars. He then heard a loud engine sounding from behind them and looked. He saw two motorcycles drive up from behind a freighter truck. One of them, who wasn't wearing a helmet, drove up to the front of the car and looked at them.

Shaun placed his hand on the horn and sounded it at the driver. "Why does this always happen to me?" he grumbled.

Aiden was about to reply but his words stuck in his throat when he saw the driver pull out a gun. He saw him aiming it at Shaun but noticed the look of fear and hesitation in his eyes. The driver then aimed lower for the front left tire. "Dad, look out!" Aiden managed to say.

However, his warning came too late when the driver shot at the tire. Jun jumped in his seat when he heard the gunshot go off and the burst of the tire making the car buck. The car soon started swerving out of control as it went left and right as the rubber of the blown tire got tangled up on the wheel. Shaun turned the wheel to the left in effort to stop them from swerving off the road. But what happened instead was that the rubber was dragging them as it got caught on the road. The car turned left and the momentum was still going forward causing them to flip into the air. Aiden turned to look at his brother and put on a brave face. "Jun! Look at me! Everything is going to be okay!" he said to Jun before they landed on Jun's side.

* * *

Aiden woke up with a gasp and shot straight up as the alarm blared it's annoying ring. He looked at both sides to see that he was back in his motel room. Letting out a depressed sigh, he swung his legs to the side of the bed and sat up. He looked down as memories started playing through his head. _"I'm sick of remembering them this way. It's never a dream of Jun running up to me, trying to tackle me to the ground when I visit him at Signal. Or when dad would try to call me saying that he loves me and that I'll be a good boy at Beacon. It's always that dream, reminding me what happened that night."_

Grabbing his baseball cap from the nightstand and fixing it to his head, he stood up and walked towards the door. Stepping outside, the sunlight hit his face as he stepped onto the balcony of the motel. The motel was in the northern area of Vale, being the older and ghetto parts of the city. The morning sun slowly rose from the horizon. The skies were a a clear crystal blue with no clouds in sight. Despite going through his harsh moments of his life, Aiden was glad that he could cherish this whenever he could when he's not trying to find out who put the hit on his father.

It gave his soul peace and made him feel at ease. It seemed to make his mind more calm and clear whenever he needs to think hard or just take in these moments of peace for him.

His phone rang and he took it out. Seeing the caller ID, he answered it and placed it on his ear. "Yang, hi, how's it going?" he greeted her for this first time in over eight months.

"Hi, big cuz, I'm doing great. You coming over to Ruby's party to-?" a yawn cut off Yang mid sentence on her side making her cousin chuckle.

"Yeah, I'm comin' over. How's Nicky and Ruby doing?" Aiden asked her as he walked downstairs to the parking lot of the motel.

"They're doing alright, I suppose. Nicole really misses you since you haven't been talking to us since the summer break started. What have you been doing?" Yang asked him.

Aiden tensed up slightly when he heard Yang ask him that. Nicole and his cousins don't know that he's "the Vigilante" and is behind all the subduing that have been happening for the past eleven months. Choosing his words carefully Aiden said, "Nothing much. Just going through life... t-that's all," he said with a small stutter.

"Aiden, it's okay to admit that you're hurting and that-"

"Yang, I'm fine. I'll be coming over soon, just going to get a present for Ruby. And can you tell Velvet that I'm coming? I don't want to scare her when I come up to her," Aiden requested to his cousin as he got to the car he used last night to get away from the stadium.

"Sure, see ya soon, Aiden!" Yang said before she cut the connection.

Aiden entered his car and sat himself in the driver seat while closing the door. He let out a small sigh as he turned on the engines. He turned the shift to the "drive" and drove out of the parking lot onto the street carefully not wanting to harm people or destroy property.

* * *

He drove down the highway more faster than usual since the early hours of the morning went on with barely any traffic on the roads. "Better give Alec a call. He can give me a ride to Beacon once I'm done with business," he said. He took out his phone and went to his contacts. He scrolled down to "Alec Walker" and tapped on it and placed it on his ear. A moment went by with the phone ringing until it was answered.

"Aiden, what's up, man?" Alec greeted happily to the hacker with the sounds of a blowtorch going off in the background.

"I'm doing fine, Alec. Hey, it's one of my cousin's birthday today and I'm wondering if you can give me a lift to Beacon after I'm done getting her a present," Aiden replied into his phone while turning a corner going off the highway to the Business district of Vale, Dust Fortune.

"Sure, just let us give our VTOL a few finishing touches and repairs and we'll get you. Where do you want to be picked up at?" Alec said to Aiden.

"Pick me up at the Bowler airstrip that gives rides to Beacon in a half-hour," Aiden answered him as he drove down a street to the nearby shops of the district.

"Alright, see you soon," Alec said.

Aiden cut the call and slowed his car down as he found a Dust store. He pulled up beside the store and turned off the engine. He was about to exit his car until he saw familiar figures. They were dressed in charcoal black business suits, leather shoes and fedora hats. He stayed put in the car counting the total of the group. "One, two, three, four... five. Alright." He saw them enter the Dust store with one of them standing guard outside. He pulled up his neckwarmer over his face and exited out of his car.

He walked towards the store and the thug took out a gun and aimed it at him. "Hey, beat it kid, if you know what's good for you!" he threatened to the hacker.

Aiden just stood in front of the thug with a smirk behind his mask. "All right, fine," he said turning heel. After making a one-hundred degree turn he took out his nightstick in his right hand. He flicked his wrist out making the nightstick extend to it's full length of 14-inches and smacked the thug in the face. Caught off guard, the thug fell down to the ground from the strike. Aiden stood over the thug and bashed the thug's face with his nightstick hard. A few audible cracks where heard when it connected with his face, signifying that he'll have a serious concussion thanks to that. "Sorry, bud, but I'm not letting you rob this store."

Hacking into one of the store's camera's, he got clear view of the inside. He saw that the leader of the goons had a pistol unholstered on his side as he approached that counter. "Alright, good sir. Now, if you want to keep your store in good condition, I suggest you give us all your Dust," he threatened him before pointing the pistol at him.

The owner raised his hands and quaked with fear. "Please, don't do this. I'm begging you," he pleaded to the leader.

The leader smiled evilly at the owner and motioned his head to the owner. One of the thugs went up to the counter and grabbed the owner by his shirt collar. "Now, give us some Dust or you won't sell another crystal again."

The door opened wide and smashed itself against the wall. The thugs spun around to see Aiden entering the store. A thug widened his eyes when he saw the symbol on Aiden's mask and tugged on the leader's sleeve. "Bossman, it's him. It's the Vigilante!" he whimpered to him.

The leader turned around and looked at the hacker. "So, this is the great Vigilante? I thought he would be taller? Eh, whatever. Boys, rough him up and teach him a lesson."

The thugs took out short bladed, katana-like swords with red blades and moved towards Aiden. Grinning behind his mask, Aiden ran towards one of the thugs and brought his nightstick across his face and elbowed him in the back of the head before he kicked one to his side in the gut hard and brought his nightstick down on his head, making him plummet to the ground.

Hearing the clicking of a gun go off, Aiden ran towards one of the counters and dove over it taking cover. Gunshots started going off hitting the wooden cover he hid behind. He unholstered his M9 pistol and took in a deep breath. He held his phone in his right hand and looked up at the ceiling to see fire sprinklers installed. Without saying a word, he downloaded into the store's systems and hacked into the sprinklers. Water started pouring down in the store causing the thugs to be dumbfounded. Aiden took advantage of this and vaulted over to counter and activated his Semblance. The world blurred on the edges of his vision and became slow as the droplets of water began to fall towards the ground at the speed of a snail. He shot the second last thug in the head. A sickening crack went off as the bullet made contact with his skull and traveled through his brain to the other side turning it into mush as blood seeped out of the back of his head.

The leader was about to fire on Aiden again until his pistol was knocked out of his hands and the nightstick hit him hard in the arm with the sound of a bone breaking. He yelped in pain before being pinned to the wall by the young hacker. "Still think that I'm not the Vigilante?" Aiden growled at the leader. He aimed his pistol at the leader's face and narrowed his eyes. "Tell your boss that you won't be stealing Dust under my watch. Got it!" The leader just nodded at him with fear in his eyes. "Good, and just to send him a clear message-" Aiden shot him in the leg. The leader cried in pain as blood spurted out of the bullet wound all over the wall he was pinned on. Aiden then threw him across the store to the entrance. "Show him that. I won't hesitate to track him down and kill him on the spot." The leader just gave him a weak nod and exited the store.

Aiden looked at the store owner who just couldn't believe his own eyes. Right in front of him is "the Vigilante"! He took down the men that tried to rob him of his Dust in less than two minutes when it would take the police five minutes to do. "T-thank you, sir!" he shouted to him. Aiden nodded at him before running out of the store. The owner then looked at the slightly destroyed state of his store and let out a satisfied sigh. "Good thing he came when he did or my store would've been in dire need."

* * *

Aiden was seated in the co-pilot seat of a VTOL as it soared across the sky towards Beacon. He let out a frustrated grumble as he placed a hand on his chin. "Great, thanks to that robbery, I forgot to get Ruby her present," he said looking out of the window.

"Com' on, tell them that you were in rush hour and you would've been late for the party," Alec said to him. The VTOL pilot was wearing a brown aviator jacket with forest cameo pants and black combat boots. He had short, wavy brown hair, a bright peach complexion and friendly green eyes behind polarized aviator glasses.

"Whatever, at least I'll be there. Better being there than having no present for her," Aiden replied to the pilot.

"So how's the girlfriend doing, Aiden? She doing alright?" Elliot, Alec's younger brother, asked from the door of his turret. He looked almost exactly like his older brother but was shorter and had soft brown eyes and wore black pants and white runners.

Aiden shrugged at the younger Walker. It has been at least three months since he's seen Velvet, being quite busy looking for the triggerman and the one who ordered the hit. Well, they have been talking to each other via phone, email and texting about how they've been. But it's been a long time since they saw each other in person. Last time Aiden recalled seeing her was back in Vale.

"Hey, get some shut eye, Aiden. Beacon's still a long way," Alec said to the hacker.

Aiden fixed himself on his seat and leaned back into his seat. Letting out a deep breath he tipped his baseball cap down over his eyes and closed his eyes.

* * *

_Fourteen months ago, Beacon Academy, Second Semester for Team's RWBY and JNPR..._

The morning classes have ended for the day paving the way for lunchtime to the afternoon classes of the day, like any other day at Beacon. Team RWBY have just walked out of Prof. Port's classroom and were glad that the bell rang before he could start another pointless story of his youth.

Team's RWBY and JNPR were seated together at their usual table after grabbing their lunches from the lunch-lady. "So, how was Grimm studies today, you guys?" Jaune asked the opposing team across them breaking the silence between them.

"Ugh, do you even need to ask? We barely learn anything from that man and we have more Grimm studies back in our previous academies," Weiss interjected to the blonde knight after taking a sip from her glass of water.

Jaune just nodded at her and resumed to his own meal feeling stupefied by the heiress. A few minutes passed as the indistinctive conversations went on in the cafeteria and between them until they heard familiar snickering coming from a familiar team. Yang gripped her hand into a fist hard, almost whitening her knuckles when she heard the snickering. "That dumb bastard, Cardin. When will he learn his lesson? I thought I gave him one a few months ago?" the brawler growled as she started to stand up.

She was stopped when she felt her girlfriend's hand ensnare her her hand with her own. Yang turned around to see the amber orbs staring at her and shaking her head. "Yang, don't. Last time you did that you almost punched Cardin through a wall," Blake said to her.

Yang looked at her for a moment before looking up to see team CRDL surrounding Velvet. Cardin was once again pulling one of her rabbit ears. "C-Cardin, please leave me alone," Velvet whimpered to the hunter-in-training while trying to pull his hand off of her ear.

"C'mon, carrot lover, we're just having some fun here. Besides, where did you get that stupid outfit of yours anyway? It looks like it can't even take a punch to it," Cardin said harshly to her before tugging back hard making the rabbit faunus yelp in pain from the sudden jerk.

Velvet closed her eyes as tears were brimming behind her eyes from the pain. "Please, s-stop," she pleaded him.

All of team RWBY and JNPR watched the scene unfold before them. Yang was wanting to bash their faces in while Ruby and Blake restrained her. Weiss wanted to do something, only knowing that it would backfire into her.

They then saw a teen walking up to team CRDL. The two sister's eyes brightened in relief when they saw who it was. "Aiden," Ruby said quietly as she let go of Yang's arm, her sister ready to discharge a shell into Cardin's skull.

Weiss looked at her girlfriend with a confused look. "Ruby, what did you-?'

"Quiet, princess, just watch and relax," Yang said to the heiress before leaning into Blake.

Aiden walked up to team CRDL and tapped on Cardin's shoulder. The racist hunter turned around to see the hacker behind him. "Who the hell are you?" Cardin sneered at Aiden not letting go of Velvet's ear.

Aiden looked at the rabbit faunus who was quietly whimpering to herself with tears coming out of her shut eyes. "I think you should ask yourself that, Cardin," Aiden said stoically to him. He noticed that his teammates were circling around him. He stowed his right hand into his trench coat's pocket and continued to stare at Cardin.

"Hey, why don't you mind your own business, bro. Just forget what you saw here," Russel growled at Aiden.

"Funny, we're suppose to be training how to protect the innocent and weak from monsters. Yet, you guys are going against all we're learning here," Aiden said to him unfazed by Cardin's lackeys closing in on him. "Or is it because you can't make a name for yourself so you decide to prey on innocent people like her?" Aiden said to him.

Something inside Cardin seemed to have snapped inside Cardin, He let go of Velvet's ear and threw a punch at Aiden's face. Aiden leaned backwards before the punch could even reach him. The hacker reached into his pocket and extended out his nightstick. Aiden swung at Cardin's knee making him collapse on his left knee. Aiden grabbed the back of his head with his left hand and kneed him in the face hard into his nose with a couple cracks going off as the knee made contact.

Aiden let go of Cardin, who grabbed his broken, and lightly pushed him to the ground. Russel ran towards Aiden and threw a punch at him. Aiden caught his arm and elbowed him in the face before smacking the side of his head with his nightstick. Sky held his fists up and advanced towards the hacker. He brought his leg up and tried to kick Aiden in the stomach. The hacker activated his Semblance and retaliated by kicking his foot away before punching him across the face and headbutting him. Aiden turned around to look at Dove who just backed off with his hands raised in defeat. "I don't want to get my ass kicked," Dove said to Aiden before turning heel towards the entrance to the cafeteria.

Aiden knelt down beside Cardin and placed the tip of his nightstick on his throat. He leaned in with his face close to his. Cardin shivered in fear when he saw Aiden's eyes filled with ruthlessness and emitted "Show no mercy". Aiden stabbed his nightstick into Cardin's chest and placed it back into his pocket. "Next time, consider what you're going to do. You might regret it," he said coldly to him. Aiden stood back up and walked towards Velvet. "Hey, you okay?" he asked her in a soft voice, opposite of what his tone was earlier.

"I-I'm fine. Thanks for helping me," Velvet said wiping away her tears. She was about to say something else until she saw Cardin getting back up and taking out his mace. He raised it above his head ready to strike down on Aiden's head. "Watch out!"

Aiden turned around and punched Cardin in the face once again and kicked him down to the ground while unholstering his pistol and pointing it to his head. "You're lucky that Beanbag rounds are loaded in this. But I won't be so nice next time," Aiden hissed at him before shooting a round into his face, making Cardin blackout behind the velocity. He holstered his pistol before facing Velvet again with a sheepish look. "Sorry 'bout that. He was asking for it."

"W-why did you help me? No one, except my own team and team's RWBY and JNPR, would give their time to help me out," Velvet said to him timidly.

Aiden smiled at her and patted her back gently. "No one deserves to be treated like that. Faunus or human, we are all equal and I would never turn a blind eye to this crime."

All the while, team's RWBY and JNPR were watching the entire thing go down. Jaune had his mouth gaping in utter shock and surprise while Weiss and Blake just couldn't believe what happened. "H-he just took them down without breaking a sweat," Jaune stuttered with a finger pointing at Aiden.

"Who did you say he was again?" Weiss asked the sisters.

"That's Aiden Pearce. He's our older cousin and a second year student here. As you can see, he is pretty skilled just with a nightstick and can take down more than a dozen Grimm or guys in a cinch," Yang explained to her friends.

"He's also pretty good at computers and hacking since his dad an expert with electronics," Ruby pipped in.

"Oh, I've heard of him. Supposedly, he was asked by Ozpin himself to oversee the installation of a ctOS system here at Beacon since Ozpin doesn't really trust Blume with their own technicians," Blake added in on the conversation. "Everything from cameras, doors, the steam pipes, almost everything here at Beacon."

"Yep, our cousin is really good at what he does," Yang said with a grin.

* * *

_Present..._

Aiden woke up from his nap with a groan and lifted his cap up and rubbed his eyes accompanied by a long yawn. He felt his head being nudged by an elbow and caught the next hit going for him. "Stop doing that. Are we here?" he asked Alec.

"We'll be touching down in a moment. I suggest you should get yourself ready," Alec replied to the half-asleep hacker who was still coming to.

"That's-" Aiden yawned again and rubbed his eyes again, "good. Can't wait then."

Beacon soon came in view of the two's sight and Aiden smiled as fond memories started playing through his head. _"Beacon... it's been too long since I've been here. Yet I had good times here. I still remember doing initiation here. It was... insane, yet I'm still here. I wonder how Ozpin is doing?" _he thought as the closed in.

The VTOL soon landed at the landing bay of the academy. The humming of the engine soon dying out as the door opened. Aiden stepped out of the VTOL and stuffed his hands into his trench coat's pockets. "Thanks for the ride, Alec! I really appreciate it!" Aiden shouted to the pilot.

"Not a problem! If you need anything, give us a call! We'll come!" Alec shouted back as he warmed up the engines for take-off.

Aiden nodded at him and proceeded to walk towards the academy. _"I haven't seen Nicky, Yang and Ruby since the funeral. Am I ready?" _Aiden looked down on the familiar trail going into the academy and let out a saddened sigh and closed his eyes. _"At Ruby's last birthday, Jun bought her a new blade for Crescent Rose. They were both weapon fanatics. They were so happy together and laughed at the most simplest jokes. Now... I'm afraid of the silence."_

"Mr. Pearce, welcome back to Beacon," a familiar voice called out.

Aiden looked up to see Ozpin standing at the entrance of the academy. he had his favourite mug of coffee in hand and took a sip from it. "Hey, Ozpin. Great to see you. How's the ctOS system so far?"

"It's been doing great for the school. Seeing how Blume has a few corrupt officials and can use the information to blackmail people and have personal gain for themselves," Ozpin answered back to the young hacker.

"I'm just here to see my sister and cousins again. It's been so long," Aiden said to the headmaster.

"Then don't let me keep you from seeing them again. Go on ahead," Ozpin said to him with a smile on his face.

Making his way to one of the recreational rooms of Beacon, Aiden stood outside of the door where the party was. He raised his hand to knock on the door but his hand was frozen in place before he could make contact with the door. Taking in a deep breath, he knocked slowly on the door and waited. The door opened and he could hardly react when he was tackled by surprise by Yang and Nicole.

"Aiden!" they both shouted happily as he almost fell on the ground.

"Hey! Hey! Take it easy! I'm not going anywhere!" Aiden replied before he was being suffocated by Yang's famous bear hugs. "Yang... c-can't breath!"

Yang broke off from the hug and giggled at him. "Sorry, Aiden! We all missed you."

Nicole looked at her watch and faced her brother. "So, an entire year and-"

"I show up," Aiden answered back. "Yeah, I'm sorry, Nik. Really," Aiden said to her with a smile coming to his face.

"Come here," Nicole said to him. The two siblings walked towards each other and wrapped their arms around them for a welcoming hug. Nicole pulled away and looked at her brother's face. "Let's have a look at you." She observed his face with her lip pouting out slightly. "You look older," she stated.

"Ah, nice. Thanks for that," Aiden said and pushed her playfully away with a faked hurt look on his face. He then looked inside the room and saw Ruby laughing as she leaned into Weiss.

"It's her first birthday without Jun," Nicole said to him.

"How's she doing?" Aiden asked her.

"She's alright. She's a bit down a times but has us to brighten up her day," Yang replied to her cousin. "Miss Goodwitch says that she's still going through the mourning phase, but she'll get through it. It's hard, but we're gonna get through it like family." She then popped her head into the room. "Hey Rubes! You got a visitor!" she shouted.

"Who is it?" Ruby asked. Her eyes went wide when she saw Aiden enter the room with a sheepish smile on his face. Ruby zipped up to him with rose petals following right behind her.

"Hey." Aiden bit his lip and extended his arms out to his sides. "Sorry I'm late and didn't get you a present." He chuckled at her and nodded. "Can I... can I get a hug?"

Ruby jumped on him and hugged him tightly. Aiden could feel warm tears seep into his shoulder hearing his young cousin sob quietly.. "It's great to see you, Aiden!" she cried before wiping away her tears.

"It's great to see you too, Ruby," Aiden greeted back as he patted her back. He pulled away from the hug and observed her. The last time he saw Ruby she was at least his chest height. Now, she reached his shoulders, indicating that she is going through a growth spurt. "Wow! You are... bigger than last time!" he said motioning hands at her.

"She's really grown since the first year," Weiss said from across the room. "Both height and maturity."

"Hey! I am mature, Weiss!" Ruby pouted at her girlfriend with a huff.

"Hey, I'm going to have a talk with Aiden for a bit. You guys have some more fun," Nicole said to them as she grabbed her brother's arm. The party goers nodded at her and she dragged Aiden out to the hallway.

"Yeah, I'll be, I'll be back in a sec," Aiden said to them before disappearing into the hallway.

The two siblings looked at each other in awkward silence. Aiden placed a hand behind his head and let out a small yawn. Nicole shook her head at him and placed her hands on her hips. "This matters. You being here," she said to him. "I-I just need to make sure that things are different."

Aiden's face softened at his sister's words and put on a fresh subtle smile. "Things are different." The hacker looked away from Nicole and slumped his arms back down to his sides. Facing her again he placed a hand on her shoulder. "You, Ruby, Yang and Velvet, are the most important people in my life." Nicole placed a hand on his wrist with a petite smile. Aiden then snaked his arm around her neck and leaned on her. "I'm not going to stop watching out for you guys."

Nicole moved away from her brother with a chuckle. "...Always the big brother, huh?" she said before punching him in the chest lightly. She made her back to the rec room and looked at him. She noticed the distressed look on his face with his lips mumbling silent words. "Aren't you coming back in, Aiden?"

Aiden shot his head at her and sighed. "It's been awhile since I saw Velvet. I wonder what she's going to say?" he said to her.

"I bet she's gonna say, 'I missed you so much. It's great to see you'. I bet that," Nicole said.

Aiden gave her a wry smile before turning heel into the hallway. "I'm gonna go see her now. You guys keep partying without me," he said to her before disappearing behind a corner.

Nicole shook her head at her brother before going back in. "That's my big brother."

* * *

Aiden walked down the familiar hallways of the academy. He looked into the same classrooms that he had been in so long ago before dropping-out of Beacon after the incident occurred. _"It seems like forever since I've been in these hallways. I guess it's me just focusing too much on finding the ones who killed dad and Jun. I gotta relax sometime."_

He snapped out of his thoughts when he heard a recognizable whimper coming from down the hallway. His hands slowly turned into fists as his eyes gleamed with acquainted ruthlessness before he started jogging. He reached the source of the whimpering to see his girlfriend in a corner with team CRDL surrounding her. His eye twitched when he saw Cardin pull on one of Velvet's rabbit ears.

"Hey!" Aiden shouted out at them. They turned around and he saw them shudder when they saw him.

Velvet looked up and her eyes brightened when she saw the hacker, his trench coat cascading down his body as he stared down at Cardin. "Aiden..." she whispered to herself as Cardin let go of her ear.

Cardin rolled his shoulders and stared down at him. "Well, well, well, it's the Beacon Drop-Out. Why are you here? Want to re-register back in?" Cardin leered at the hacker.

"Let her go. Now," Aiden said in a cold voice as he pointed at his face.

Cardin scoffed at him while his teammates laughed. "Oh really? What are you gonna do? We're second year students now and we have more experience than you."

Velvet wanted to laughed out loud when she heard Cardin say that. _"Aiden's a better fighter than you, Cardin."_

Aiden smirked at them and outstretched his arms to his sides. "No kidding? Then try getting me down to the ground," he snickered at them with a sly grin.

Dove unsheathed his sword and ran towards Aiden with a war cry. He swung his sword down aiming for his head. Aiden side stepped to the right and elbowed him in the side of the head and swiped his leg behind Dove's making him fall down on the ground. Russel did the same thing Dove did and threw a punch at Aiden for his chest. The hacker brought up his hand and pushed away his hand before head-butting him on the nose before kicking him away. Aiden took out his nightstick and took the offensive on them. Sky tried to take out his halberd in it's compact form but was stopped dead in his tracks when Aiden swung his nightstick at the hand that was stowing for the halberd before getting smacked across the face.

Aiden snaked his left arm around Sky's neck as he fell behind him and quickly shoved his pistol into Cardin's mouth who was about swing his mace at him with a war cry. Freezing in place, Cardin looked into Aiden's eyes seeing the same eyes filled with ruthlessness from before. Aiden placed his finger on the trigger and pulled slightly on it. "I know I said I won't be so nice the last time. But I'm in a good mood right now so I'm letting you off the hook." Aiden let go of Sky and placed his arm on Cardin's neck and pinned him to a wall. "But I promise you, the next time I see you doing this to anyone, I swear, I won't hesitate to pull the trigger," he threatened before releasing his hold on him.

Cardin held his mouth in horror as he gasped for air collapsing on the ground. He looked up to see Aiden looking down on him with cold daggers piercing into his head. Without saying a word Cardin stood up and walked over to his downed teammates getting them up to their feet. He turned his head to look at the hacker and flipped him the bird at him. "I'll get you next time, Pearce, and you'll pay for this."

"If I had a one Lien every time I heard that," Aiden muttered under his breath as they disappeared from his sight. Turning around to see Velvet, seeing her seated on the ground, he walked over to her and knelt down beside her. "You alright, Vel?" he asked her in a calm voice.

Velvet nodded at him as she wiped away her acquainted tears that formed in her eyes. "I-I'm fine, Aiden." She then latched on to him as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "I missed you so much!" she squealed into his shoulder.

Aiden hugged her back as his arms wrapped protectively around her waist. He gently ran a hand on the rabbit ear that has been pulled on and massaged it softly. "I missed you too, Velvet," Aiden answered back to her. He pulled away from the hug and gazed into her ebony orbs. They leaned in slowly and their lips pressed against each other sweetly as they closed their eyes. Aiden ran a hand across her cheek while she grasped the back of his coat. They broke off after a minute with their breaths short and tongues out.

"Aiden?"

"Uh-huh?"

"Was it you that did the blackout in the stadium last night?" she asked him curiously.

"No," Aiden said defiantly as he looked away from her. Feeling her eyes burning holes into his head, he looked back at her and sighed. "Alright, I did do it. But I had to to get out of there."

Velvet titled her head at him in confusion. "Why was "the Vigilante" at the stadium?"

Bitting his lip, Aiden gathered his thoughts and sighed. "I found the triggerman. I found the one who carried out the hit on my father," he said to her quietly.

Velvet gasped at the revelation as she saw her boyfriend's eyes watering being accompanied by his body shivering. "What did you do to him?"

"I... I interrogated him. I sent him with a contact of mine to a location to get some more information out of him. Velvet, I had to," he said as he started to sob. "I had to. I can't sleep at night because I keep seeing their faces in my dreams. I need this," he cried into her as she clutched desperately at her.

Velvet held him firmly to let him know that she was there and that she wasn't going anywhere. She stroked his hair gently as she patted his back. "Shh, it's okay, Aiden. You're going to be okay."

"I can't bear the thought of you, Nicky, Ruby or Yang getting hurt... or worse," he croaked out into her as he continued to cry.

"I can't bear the thought of you getting hurt either," Velvet cooed into his ear softly. "I still couldn't believe it when I found out that you were "the Vigilante. It was shocking."

* * *

_Eight months ago, a few months after Aiden dropped out of Beacon..._

It was a quite Saturday evening in Vale. The rabbit faunus was walking down the sidewalk beside the familiar shops she used to go to when she was at Signal before transferring to Beacon. She was in a slump right now. After she was rescued by Aiden, she summoned the courage to thank him for helping her out from Cardin. The days turned into months and the two have grown considerably close in terms of friends.

But as time flew by, Velvet started to have feelings for the hacker. She knew that he wasn't the most social person out there, keeping his distance from most people except for his family. But she knew that underneath all of that was a kindred spirit beneath. After all, Aiden stood up for her and befriended her when most times he wouldn't even talk to most students at Beacon.

But after what happened to Aiden when his father and brother died, she saw him go into a serious state of depression. He shut everyone out, including his remaining family. She attended the funeral service and saw how distant he was from the service itself. When the service was over and she was walking away, she just saw him standing in front of his two deceased family members in the rain. Her heart broke at that sight. She wanted to comfort him but she knew that he needed space. She was even more heart broken when she learned that he left Beacon without saying goodbye to anyone.

She let out a saddened sigh as she trotted along the sidewalk. "Beacon's not the same anymore with Aiden," she muttered out. Unknown to her, she never noticed three unsavoury characters standing outside of the local pub, clearly drunk.

They started walking towards her, moreover slumping over to her with their movement off. Velvet's rabbit ears twitched when she heard their footsteps behind her. She quickened her pace, not wanting to have an incident tonight on the weekend.

Before she could reach the crosswalk at the end of the sidewalk, she felt a hand grab her arm. "Where do you think you're going, animal trash?" one of the drunkards asked her.

_"Great, not only that they're drunk, but they despise faunus as well," _Velvet thought smugly before turning to them. "Please, I don't want any trouble. Just let me go."

"I don't think so, dirtbag. Your kind have killed many humans during the war between us," the second one slurred to her.

"Yeah," the third one pipped in, "Why can't you accept the fact that we're better than you fleabags?"

"We 'ought to teach her a lesson, boys," the first one said as he used his freehand to grab and pull hard on one of her rabbit ears.

"Ow! Stop it!" Velvet shouted as she tried to reach for her Dust wand in her weapon case only for it to be grabbed by the drunkard.

"You're not grabbing that, scum," he said with a rather evil smirk on his face.

_"Oh no," _the rabbit faunus thought. She closed her eyes tightly not wanting to see what will happen next.

"Hey! Who's this bastard!" one of them shouted. She felt for her ear being let go of and she stumbled back. She heard them screaming as they heard the hard hitting of hard plastic make contact with them. She pried open one eye and her other eye popped wide open.

In front of her was a figure clad in a brown trench coat and dark grey trousers with a dark brown baseball cap adorned on his head. He had a grey neckwarmer scarf that covered most of his face. The figure fought with audacity as defended her against her assaulters. She just watched what unfolded before her. _"That fighting style. It can't be..." _she thought as she let out a small 'eep' when she saw her defender whack the last drunkard hard across his face to the right.

"A-Aiden?" she said quietly to him.

The figure turned around and looked at her. "I think you're mistaking me for someone else, ma'am," he said to her before he started to walk away.

Velvet sprang in her step and reached for his hand. She grasped it and squeezed tight on it. The figure stopped dead in his tracks but didn't turn to face her. "Aiden, I know it's you. That mask can't fool me. I know your fighting style and your attitude."

Aiden shook her hand off and continued to walk away. "It's getting late. You better get home," he said coldly to her.

Tears brimmed behind the rabbit faunus's eyes as she clentched them shut. "No! I'm not going anywhere! I know it's you! You can't hide it!" she screamed at him. Her breathing was shallow as she started to cry. "I know it's you Aiden. You don't need to hide it," she said quietly to him.

The hacker merely turned around slowly to look at her and his heart sank. In front of him was Velvet kneeling on the ground with her hands in her face as she sobbed quietly. He could see her body trembling in the dim light of the streetlight beside them. "I-I love you, Aiden," Velvet croaked out, almost in a whisper.

She felt a finger go underneath her chin and lifted her head up. She felt a hand gently pull away her hands from her face. Her heart started beating rapidly when he saw Aiden's features soften each passing second. The hacker leaned forward as his eyes closed and planted his lips on hers, his arms wrapping around her waist. She let out a surprised mewl before she melted into the kiss and wrapped her arms around his neck. They broke off after a moment with their breaths short and flushes on their faces. Aiden cupped her cheek and smiled at her. "I love you too, Velvet." Aiden stood up and helped the rabbit faunus up to her feet. Aiden pulled up his mask over his face and nodded at her before he walked away from her, their fingers slipping out of each other's grasps.

Velvet just watched the hacker walk down the sidewalk before disappearing into the devouring shadows in the distance. "Best. Night. Ever," she cheered to herself with a content smile on her features.

* * *

_Present..._

Aiden kept on hugging her as his tears flowed on to her shoulder. "I can still remember that night so clearly. I could say that it was one of the best moments of my life."

"It's one of mine as well," Velvet said to him. She pulled away and gave him a small smile. "I understand, Aiden. You need this, and I respect that."

Aiden wiped his tears away and returned the smile. "T-thanks, Velvet. The police have been saying that "I'm a man out of control." But I've never had so much control."

"But Aiden, remember that you're a good person. Think before you act, or people get hurt," Velvet said to him sternly as she poked his chest.

The hacker gave her a humorous smile with a chuckle. "I'll remember that, Vel." He noticed that the shadows have started to elongate as he saw the sunlight shift into it's late orange. "It's getting late. I don't want to bother Alec to pick me up this late. I've been bleeding him dry for the past few weeks. I won't have time to get back to the motel."

An idea popped up in Velvet's head accompanied by a bright flush. "M-maybe you can stay with me?" she proposed to her boyfriend.

Aiden raised a cautious eyebrow at her. "Whoa, in your dorm room? Don't you think your teammates might question why I'm sleeping in your bed?"

"Nah, they know I'm with you so we're in the clear." Velvet grabbed his arm and began to drag him down the hallway. "C'mon, let's go."

_"And Yang thought I was a dirty minded guy," _Aiden smugly thought as he was dragged away.

* * *

_Undisclosed location..._

Roman walked into the warehouse, once again empty handed for the third time this month. Nonetheless, Roman was pissed. "That bastard had to interfere with our operations again," he cursed out loud.

"Empty handed again, Roman?" a feminine voice said from the shadows.

Roman spun around and pointed his cane at the shadows. "Cinder, you gotta stop doing that!" he scolded her.

Cinder stepped out of the shadows with her hands on her hips. She had a disappointed smile on her face and her eyes glowed brightly. "What's going on?"

"It's that damn Vigilante! He's been disrupting our operations for the past seven months! We're behind schedule thanks to that mad man!" Roman complained to her. "You said that you have clear access to the ctOS system. But apparently, "the Vigilante" seems to be a pretty good hacker as well. My men have seen him hack into a ctOS centre just under fifteen minutes and made it out unscathed."

Cinder walked over to him and ran a hand underneath his chin. "Oh, Roman, Roman. Your job is just to get the Dust and supplies. Unless you want me to show the world your crime file and you can never leave prison?" she said innocently with venom in her voice.

Roman stiffened at her words and shook his head at her. "N-no. That's not so necessary, Cinder. I'll go round up the boys and tell them about next weeks jobs and runs."

"Good. Now run along," she said to him as she waved him off. Roman nodded at her before walking away into the deeper recesses of the warehouse. Cinder looked up through the skylight of the warehouse and drifted her hand to her chin. _"This is interesting. This man has been disrupting our operations for many a month now. While the police may say he's a reckless mad man on the loose, the people say that he is a beacon of light for them on the streets. How humorous. But this so called Vigilante, he's sloppy. I've seen how he hacks in and gets out. Maybe if I can trace his signal, I can pinpoint his signature. But for now, I'll let him play his "hero" role."_


	3. Chapter 3: Crank Caller

Chapter 3

Sunlight seeped through the curtains of the solitary dorm as Aiden and Velvet cuddled next to each other in their sleep. Velvet had her head nuzzled into the hacker's neck while in turn Aiden had his hands gently cupping her rabbit ears when he was stroking them last night.

Usually, Aiden would have the same nightmare from the other day, like any other night, but being with his girlfriend set his mind at ease as fell into slumber last night.

The sunlight landed on the rabbit Faunus's face. Velvet let out a small whimper as she buried her head more into his neck. Her arms tightened just slightly more around his waist as she tried to escape the morning light. "No... don't wanna get up yet," she murmured into his neck causing Aiden to shiver slightly from the action.

Aiden's eyes fluttered open and scanned their surroundings. He felt his girlfriend's weight on his side with her head resting in the crook of his neck. The hacker couldn't help but let out a smile at the soft breathing of Velvet on his neck. Velvet was his "Bunny Rabbit", a cute and innocent girl who was put down because of her heritage.

Placing his hands on her arms, he gently, and firmly, pulled her arms off his waist and set them near her chest. He sat up and swung his legs to the side of the bed. He stood up and quietly walked over to her desk and acquired his trench coat and baseball cap. _"It's been awhile since I fell asleep with Velvet. But whenever I do, I feel so warm and at peace inside. But the men who ordered the hit on dad are still out there. I can't rest until I find them and have them pay for what they've done." _

Aiden got his trench coat on and pulled the strap across his chest as he looked at the time. _"I should call Alec. I'll ask him if he can give me a ride again back to the motel." _

The hacker then felt small arms wrap around his neck from behind with two dropping rabbit ears in front of his face. "Morning, Aiden," Velvet greeted with a long yawn behind it.

Aiden placed a hand on his overlapping hands and smiled. "Morning, Vel," he replied to her.

Velvet let one hand drop down and grab his cap. "Here, lemme help with that," she said to him. She lifted her hand to his head and placed his cap on his short black hair. "There you go," she said with a giggle.

Aiden smile grew wider. Velvet never failed to cheer him up. Whether he was injured or down in the dumps, a simple kind action from her always got him back to his feet. Getting his phone off her desk and sliding it into his pocket, he turned around and placed his forehead on hers. The two stood there in the sunlight in their warm embrace. Aiden then tilted his head and moved down with his lips pressing against hers for a gentle kiss. The couple closed their eyes as they pressed back sweetly and softly. Their lungs started burning for air making them break off. Aiden gave her a small grin making her giggle.

"Can't you stay here a little while longer, Aiden?" Velvet asked him with her ebony eyes softening at him in a gentle voice.

Aiden shook his head at her making her frown and her ears dropping down lower than earlier. "Sorry, Vel, I can't." Seeing his girlfriend's saddened look, he bumped her head softly with his head getting her attention. "But I promise I'll visit you once your summer break starts when I can, okay?" he proposed to her.

Velvet's ears perked up at the sound of that and she hugged him tight. "Yes, that'd be very sweet of you, Aiden," Velvet replied happily. "But you better take a break when you visit me," she said sternly as she poked his nose.

"Wouldn't think of spending time with you any other way." Releasing his arms around her, he motioned his head to her regular clothing. "Hey, how about we walk around the academy with the rest before I leave?" he offered her. All he got for an answer was another kiss from her. _"I'm guessing that's a yes then."_

* * *

The two walked down the garden trail outside the academy with their hands holding together with Velvet leaning slightly on Aiden. After the first few months they've gotten together, Aiden found out that the shy rabbit Faunus is a cuddlier and rather clingy to the hacker. Not that Aiden didn't like it, it was just surprising to find that part out about her.

"Aww, it's sad that you're already leaving!" Ruby and Yang pouted at him as they walked along with their respective partner's/girlfriend's in hand as well.

Aiden sighed as he looked behind him to look at them with a slightly annoyed look itched to it. "Guys, I'm no longer a student here and I have a "job" to get back to soon, alright?" he responded back with irritation in his voice.

"As long as my brother is okay, it's fine by me," Nicole said to him.

Aiden placed an arm around his sister still keeping his other hand holding onto Velvet's hand. "Thank's, Nicky, I really appreciate that."

Nicole was about to respond until her phone rang. "Oh, excuse me for a moment," she said to them as she took her brother's arm off her and hanged back behind them and pulled out her phone. "Oh really? No, don't let me interrupt you." Aiden looked at her for a moment while placing his left hand in his trench coat's pocket where his phone was. "Who is this? You think blocking caller ID will hide you?"

"Hey, you alright, Nicole?" Blake asked the younger Pearce in curiosity.

Nicole just nodded at her as she listened to the caller. "I don't know what's so entertaining, but the police won't find it very funny at all. Listen. The police can trace this call."

Having enough of listening to his sister, Aiden took out his phone and hacked into her communications and connected it to his bluetooth in his left ear. "...I know where you live... How are the locks on those doors? Better yet the security in Beacon?" the unknown caller said to Nicole in an evil manner.

"Who is this? Why are you calling? I'm telling you this once. Get out there, meet people, and get a fucking life," Nicole demanded to the caller.

"Do you feel safe, Nicky?" the caller said before hanging up.

Aiden looked at Velvet and she knew what he was going to do. He let go of her hand and walked over to Nicole. "Who was that?" he asked her directly.

Nicole placed her phone in her pocket and shook her head. "It doesn't matter. Just some stupid crank. It happens. I can handle them myself"

"Look... do you know his voice? Does anything about that guy's voice sound familiar?" Aiden said to her with his face becoming both annoyed and concerned.

"Jesus, Aiden, just leave it. It's fine," Nicole retorted back at him while twiddling her thumbs nervously.

"It's fine?" Aiden said irritated. "He thinks he can get inside Beacon. And the last time I remembered is that Beacon is a very secure place with a ctOS system of it's own."

"How do you know what he thinks?" Nicole questioned her brother. "It's not like you can just know what he's already thinking-"

"You check the locks on your door and how you're acting right now just gives it away," Aiden pointed out to her. "That's how it was like when dad would be out late at times. You get nervous and check if the locks on the house were alright."

"Look... I can handle this on my own!" she snapped at him. I don't need your help for this matter."

Aiden placed a hand on her shoulder and looked her dead in the eye sternly. "Nicky, I can find this guy. I can trace his phone call and-"

Nicole batted his hand away and turned away from him. "Okay, look, Aiden! Dust, you haven't changed at all! I do not need your help!" she shouted at him causing the gang to look at them. "Please stop trying to fix my problems. Every time you try, you just make things worse!"

This caused the gang to gap their mouths open while Velvet, Ruby and Yang cover their mouths in shock at what Nicole said to her brother. Hearing the familiar engines of the Walker brother's VTOl, Aiden sighed at his sister and turned heel to the landing VTOL. "I better go," he said coldly placing his hands into his trench coat's pockets.

"Yeah, I think that's a good idea," Nicole said to her brother as she crossed her arms at him, still shocked that Aiden was still the same the last time she saw him, which was when they buried their father and younger brother.

Aiden had his head down as his hidden rage surged inside him. Passing by Velvet, who was still shocked from what just happened, he lifted his head up and gave her a small sad smile before continuing to the VTOL. He felt her hand entangle around his making him freeze on spot. Velvet leaned on his arm with her head behind his. "Be careful, Aiden," she whispered to him.

Aiden gently squeezed back on her hand and nodded at her making her smile. "I will, I promise." He loosened his grip on her hand and their fingers slid away from each other. He walked up to the grounded VTOL and was greeted by the younger Walker brother at the side door. "Elliot, tell Alec to take off right now and get to Vale. Fast," he told the gunner.

"Aye, got it!" Elliot replied. He hopped over to the pilot seat and poked his brother in the head. "Bro, Aiden wants to get to Vale fast, asap," he told him.

"Alright. Checking calibration systems and we'll take off," Alec replied as he flipped buttons up and checked the VTOl's systems.

Aiden sat himself at one of the VTOL's seats and took out his phone. He brought up the intercepted call he got from Nicole and nodded. He tapped on the upper right corner of the phone screen and smirked slightly. "Grown men making crank calls," he muttered as his phone started tracing the callers location. "Let's see how safe you feel when I trace your call." His phone followed the caller's connection line and slowly pinpointed where the call originated from. "There you are, Dust Fortune, alright," Aiden whispered to himself. He leaned forward to look at the cockpit of the aircraft. "Alec, take me to Dust Fortune! I got some business there!"

"Roger!" Alec replied back as he gave Aiden a thumbs up. "We'll be there in a few minutes. Strap yourself in."

* * *

_Dust Fortune, Business District, Vale..._

The VTOL soared across the sky above the business district of Vale. Aiden stood up and stumbled over to the cockpit from the turbulence. "Alec! I'm gonna give you some co-ordinates for you to follow. I'm going to upload them into your G.P.S," the hacker said to him.

"For what?" Alec asked him not taking his eyes off the front window.

"Some asshole thinks he can threaten my family. I've traced his call and he's here in Dust Fortune. I need to find him," Aiden replied to the VTOL pilot. "I've been afraid of this. Threats to my family. Again," the hacker quietly muttered to himself. His phone started beeping and he looked down. He gritted his teeth at what he saw. "Dammit! He's on the move!"

"Just upload it into the G.P.S and I'll follow it," Alec said to him. Aiden nodded and tapped on the screen. He downloaded the data of the VTOL and connected to it. He tapped on the intercepted call and uploaded it into the system mainframe. Alec grinned when he saw the co-ordinates of the call appearing on the screen. "Got him." He pulled the joystick of the VTOL to the right and they made a sharp right turn before flying forward again.

Aiden closed his eyes as he took in a deep breath. _"I'm not letting Nicky get involved in this. It's dangerous that Velvet knows what I am. I need to be more careful. Yet, Velvet is an exception because of that night. I need to find out why this guy called my sister."_

His phone rang and he answered it already knowing who it was. "Yeah...?" he answered it.

"I'm sorry. I over-reacted," Nicole's voice replied to him making him tense slightly. "You just make me so crazy sometimes."

"Uh-huh..." Aiden answered back quickly when the VTOL picked up speed.

Alec turned his head around to look at Aiden and nodded. _"I found where the signal is coming from. It's that brown car straight ahead," _he mouthed to him.

"Come in back, okay?" I promise I won't freak out on you," Nicole said to him.

"Uh..." the hacker droned on trying to find the right words.

"Aiden? You're going after that creep, aren't you?" Nicole questioned him sternly.

"Uh... well... no..." Aiden managed to get out off his mouth.

"You're doing it right now. I can't believe you!" Nicole shouted in frustration at her brother.

"It's not like that..." the hacker answered back calmly.

"Stop being a hero, Aiden," Nicole said to him quietly. "Please. Let it go."

Having enough of his sister worrying what will happen, Aiden fell back on his emergency plan. "Let what? Yeah, the call's breaking up. I can't hear you!" he replied back like if the call was actually _breaking up._

"No," Nicole snapped back. "You can hear me perfectly. You need to stop right now," she demanded him.

"Yeah, hello? You still there? Can't hear you. Okay, gotta go!" Aiden replied back trying to hold back a snicker. Nicole let out a frustrated groan and Aiden hanged up on her.

"You didn't," Elliot said from the side door with a grin threatening to split his face in half. Aiden nodded at him and the young Walker started bursting out in laughter.

"Aiden! How're gonna get him?" Alec asked him.

Aiden's eyes scanned the nearby surroundings looking for a perfect way to take down the vehicle without causing a panic. His eyes then landed on a traffic light. He looked back on the street to see the car at least a couple blocks away. Nodding, he hacked into the traffic lights and set them to green on the four-way intersection. As the car almost reached the middle of the intersection, a car collided with the back of the caller while another one smashed straight in front. The brown car went up into the air for a second before landing back down with smoke coming out of the engine. The hacker's eyes narrowed when he saw that the caller got out of the car and ran down the street.

"Alec, drop me off at least a a block ahead of him!" Aiden shouted. He pulled his neckwarmer up and sighed. The aviator nodded and swooshed overhead the caller. Alec had the VTOL go down to the ground and had it hover at least five feet from the ground.

"There you go, Aiden! Good luck!" Alec said to him. The hacker nodded and jumped out of the VTOL. When his feet made contact with the ground, he instinctively did a shoulder roll using the momentum from the fall and got back on his feet and ran. His eyes darted to the caller. His mouth formed into a scowl and ran towards him. The caller took out a pistol and ran away from the pursuing hacker. He pointed the pistol back without looking and fired a couple shots at Aiden. The shots just missed by a couple inches from Aiden's head and he quickened his pace. Aiden got close to the caller and lunged forward, tackling him to the ground. He reached into his right pocket for his nightstick and extended it out. He brought it down on the caller's head before hitting him behind the head knocking him out.

Aiden stood back up and collapsed his nightstick while looking at the unconscious man on the ground. Stowing the nightstick in his pocket, he knelt back down and searched his body for one thing: his phone. He felt a small lump in the man's left pocket and reached into it. A satisfied grin plastered itself behind his neckwarmer at what he felt. Pulling out the phone, he pulled his phone out and connected his phone to the crank caller's. He hacked into the contacts and went to recent calls and rolled back to listen to it.

**"So we have a deal?" **

**"Shit, yeah. I can't believe you're paying me that much just to make a crank call. Nicky Pearce, right? I'll mention the locks like you said... you know, this feels wrong."**

**"That's the point."**

The audio ended with Aiden's eyes burning with anger. He threw the caller's phone to a side of a building. The phone exploded on impact, the pieces flying in multiple directions before landing on the ground with small clanking. "Someone paid this asshole to harass Nicky. Who would pay for something like that?" Aiden asked himself. Taking a few moments to think, he went onto his contacts and scrolled down to BadBoy17 and contacted him. A moment passed by before the call was picked up by the other hacker. "Hey, did you get anywhere with DedSec? I need those ctOS hacks," he asked.

"Yeah I'm still trying. They're checking you out. Give me time," BadBoy replied to Aiden.

"Okay well I need your help then. Can you trace a phone call?" the hacker asked to the DedSec hacker as he sent him the phone call he traced himself.

The DedSec hacker let out a small chuckle of disbelief. "How can I refuse my best client? Wait... What am I looking at here?" BadBoy asked when he saw the phone call.

Aiden sighed as he walked away from the unconscious body of the caller and into an alleyway. "It's from a guy who threatened my family. I want to know who hired him," Aiden pointed out to the DedSec hacker.

"Well the call came from somewhere in the Dust Fortune district. But that's as far as I can see," BadBoy replied.

Aiden shook his head in annoyance before an idea came to him. _"It's crazy like what I did last time, but it'll work." _"Okay, if I can hack ctOS inside Dust Fortune-"

"-Then I should be be able to pinpoint the source of that call," BadBoy finished.

Aiden nodded while walking down the alleyway past a homeless man. "Let's do that. Did you hear about the new ctOS Center Blume's building in Dust Fortune? It's perfect."

He heard BadBoy sigh sadly before taking in a deep breath. "DedSec tried to attack that center last month. We failed- and they just added more armed guards. Be careful."

Aiden chuckled silently to himself, not wanting the DedSec hacker to yell at him. "You sound like my sister. Relax, I'll make sure I'm armed and dangerous," he said humorously before disconnecting the call. Looking up into the darkening sky, the hacker nodded and continued his walk down the alley. _"Blume is always so skeptical about their center's They always hire from P.M.C's and pay them enough to shoot first and ask questions never. But I'm no ordinary person. They're gonna get it."_

* * *

_Undisclosed location..._

Cinder was seated down on a stone railing with her left leg crossed over her right. She watched the shattered moon as her eyes dulled from their usual brightness. Taking out her phone, she turned it on and smiled slightly when she saw the wallpaper of it. Tears filled up behind her eyes when she saw the familiar faces of her family. She wiped the tears away from her eyes before she heard footsteps behind her. "What is it Mercury?" she said.

The grey haired teen bowed before her and looked at her. "Cinder, we have gotten a shipment of Dust from a SDC freighter off the coast of Mistral. Mostly red and ice blue Dust with a few cargo boxes of white and yellow Dust. "

Cinder nodded and turned her head to face him. "Good. At least we're getting somewhere. Have you or Emerald found anything else?"

Mercury shifted in his footing nervously before looking at her. "We saw "the Vigilante"," he said timidly. "We were in Vale just walking around until we heard cars crashing. Me and Emerald ran to the source of the noise and we saw a multiple car crash. Gunshots then sounded out from one of the drivers and we saw him. He took down the driver and stood there for a bit."

Cinder's eyes flared brightly when she heard that. "You saw the Vigilante and didn't think of pursuing him? Even better yet, capture him? I'd like to see the look on his face to see that I'm a better hacker than him. He's sloppy."

"I-I'm sorry, Cinder. Me and Emerald were discussing how to proceed. Before we could even go after him, he disappeared into an alleyway," Mercury brought up.

Cinder sighed and waved a hand at him. "That'll be all, Mercury. You may return to your duties." She heard his footsteps walk away from her and become more softer before it grew silent. _"The Vigilante... he's becoming a thorn in my side. I need to get him out of the picture. He needs to be gone. But before that happens, I'd like to see his face before I burn him into a crisp."_

* * *

**Have you guys heard of Dagger of Faith? She has created a great story called The Shadow of Fire. She has also created her own version of a Watch_Dogs crossover. You should check it out if you get the chance. It would do me a great favor. **

**For those who have deviantArt, I know this may seem crazy already, but it would mean a lot to me if I see a fan art on this story. I'd appreciate it.**

**Since you people have been such a great audience, I'm gonna be a nice guy and show sneak peaks to the next chapter's so you can hang off on your seat.**

_Chapter 4 sneak peak..._

Hacking of course was pretty easy for Aiden since he's been on computers since he was seven and his dad being a hacker he was before things went down the drain. As the hacker drove down the street past minimal traffic, his phone started blaring out in panic. Taking his phone out and giving it a look he let out an irritated sigh. "Shit, someones trying to hack into me. I made too much noise in Dust Fortune. I gotta shut this person down before I can take that job Jordi's giving me."

Without thinking, Aiden started to trace the origin of the one who was trying to hack into him. But he never shook off the feeling that someone was watching him. When the hacker looked forward, something caught his eyes. Someone was standing on top of a a building. Her waist long ebony hair flew in the breeze along with her white weathered trench coat. Before Aiden could start thinking, the traffic lights in front off him went green as soon as they turned red.


	4. Chapter 4: CtOS Breach

Chapter 4

Aiden was driving down the road to the nearest weapons store in his immediate vicinity. He was able to acquire a new car via through Jordi's friend of a friend. This guy deals in pre-owned cars and has them ready to go on the double, for a price. To the Hacker, it's better having a a pre-owned car rather than registering in a car store and having your name in their data archives. He could've hacked into the data bases to erase his name, but that would be a waste of his own talents.

"_I'm breaking into a ctOS Centre. It's going to be heavily guarded by P.M.C's that shoot first and ask questions never. If ctOS doubles their guards, I better double my weapons," _he thought as he stopped at a red light. For convenience, the weapons store he tagged was actually owned by none other than Qrow Rose, Ruby's uncle, as well his through his mother's side. Like the others, he doesn't know that Aiden was "the Vigilante", but was a close friend to his dad. He just previously asked if Qrow would make a custom made weapon for him two months before now. He just received a call two weeks ago saying that his request was finished and was awaiting pick up by the Hacker. _"Glad it's Qrow. Dad and Qrow were close friends. I'm more glad he's my uncle. I remember making my M9 Pistol with him for the first time back in Signal since I wasn't one for big fancy weapons."_

Aiden couldn't help but feel that he was under watch by someone other than the ctOS system. He felt like he was under watch by other figures who lie behind a digital wall. But he never took full consideration who was watching him. He knew that DedSec was observing him but never bothered him. But there are other hackers out there other than him and the DedSec hackers. He knew that sooner or later, someone will send a fixer after him, but he's not a stranger to situations like these.

Aiden reached the weapons store, still in the Dust Fortune District. He parked the white sports car beside the store and stepped out. He took in a deep breath while closing the door of the driver seat looking at the store. "I wonder what Uncle's doing?" he asked himself looking at store's name. _"The Rose's Thorns. It is catchy."_

He entered the store and was met by the familiar jingle of a greeting chime. He ventured further into the store and looked around. The store was filled with all kinds of weapons the mind could imagine. From collapsible mechanical scythes like Ruby, foldable swords into the hilt to the Hacker's favourites, guns, and lots of them.

"Ah, if it isn't my nephew, Aiden Pearce," a voice greeted from the counter. Aiden turned around from a hybrid of a bow and sword and faced the man. He was wearing a black leather jacket with a blood red inside and accents on his sleeves unzipped with a grey shirt underneath. He had black fingerless gloves, black pants and black boots with red accents and laces. His hair was the same charcoal black as his jacket in a moused up hairstyle with a pale peach complexion and was accompanied by dark grey eyes.

Aiden smiled at the man and approached the counter. "Hey, Uncle Qrow, it's great to see you," Aiden greeted back.

Qrow copied the smile from his nephew and they hugged each other across the counter. "It's great to see that you're doing good." He pulled back and clapped his hands together. "So, what can I do for you?" he asked the Hacker.

Aiden took out his phone and typed it on the screen. "Remember that order I made two months ago, Uncle Qrow?" Aiden asked to affirm the order. "Order Vigilant Fox?"

Qrow snapped his fingers in remembrance and nodded. "Ah, I remember. It's in the back. Lemme go get it and I'll hand it to you." Qrow turned heel and disappeared into the back of the store. Aiden waited patiently by the counter as he looked around the store. He began to whistle until her heard the door open again. He looked up to see Qrow holding his order in his arms. His uncle placed the weapon on the counter and both reflected a grin off from each other. "Here ya go. Everything you wanted has been squeezed into it."

Aiden picked up the assault rifle from the counter and his eyes went from the butt of the rifle to the barrel. It was a 416 assault rifle in a dark grey colour that shinned off some light from lightbulbs above. It came with a suppressor that can be fixed on for stealth situations and a red dot sight. He took out the magazine and pressed a button near the trigger. The butt tock off the rifle went in and folded in and the barrel did the same thing. He hefted it and smiled when he saw it fold into a small rectangle like shape. He pulled his trench coat up and placed the compact rifle inside. "Thanks, uncle, I can see it's kinda like Crescent Rose with the folding and all."

Qrow chuckled at him and fist bumped his left shoulder. "It's my specialty."

Aiden nodded as he turned heel towards the entrance. "It's been paid for already, uncle. I gotta go now."

"Alright. Just wherever you go, I just hope you're alright. I swore to my sister that I'd look after you," Qrow said to him.

"I know you will," Aiden said as he exited the building.

* * *

Aiden was back in his car driving towards the ctOS Center. He wanted to get to the center as fast as possible. It wasn't hard hacking into the centers themselves, but he had to be there in person in order to do it. While he was a seasoned hacker, ctOS Centers always come with access codes to get inside the system there, which is usually on a guard. It was a pain in the ass for Aiden, but he always gets his objective done, one way or another. The radio was playing some soft music for the majority of the ride until the familiar V.C.N (Vale City News) jingle rung and went to the iconic newswoman, Lisa Lavender. "Over the past few weeks, ctOS Centers throughout Vale have increased security due to several attacks from activists groups like the White Fang, and most especially the activist hacker group, DedSec. When asked about security changes, Blume Spokeswoman Charlotte Gardner was decisive."

"Vale's safety is paramount. So we've hired private security for every ctOS Control Center," Charlotte explained. "These highly trained peacekeepers have trained in the most dangerous regions of Remnant."

"In fact, Ms. Gardner, these peacekeepers you refer to are military mercenaries," Lisa said to the Spokeswoman. "Many with criminal records, isn't that true? Some have also been former White Fang members in which the public despises."

"Indeed, Ms. Lavender, they've served time in the military but we should hardly reject our brave soldiers for proudly serving their kingdom, should we? Also, should we really turn our backs on former White Fang members who want to make a difference? Our ctOS Network is well protected. And that gives Vale citizens the comfort they deserve."

Aiden grinned to himself and shook his head. "CtOS thinking that their network is so secure. I bet they just don't want to reveal what they saw for themselves to hackers like me. They don't want to show that they have vulnerabilities. That just give DedSec more of a reason to wage war with ctOS. Not that I have a problem with it. It just gave me power." The hacker was right. He was just being realistic. No matter how secure something looks, if you look close enough, there's always weak points within it. And when you use those weak points, something will crack and will eventually fall.

* * *

_CtOS Center, Dust Fortune District..._

Aiden was sitting in his car looking at the ctOS Control Center from across the street and held his phone tightly in his left hand. He saw that a security camera was fixed to one of the buildings beside the center. He hacked into the camera and the feed of it was being displayed on his phone screen. He zoomed in and looked around. BadBoy and Lisa weren't kidding that ctOS has doubled the security in the center. He already saw eight heavily armed guards from the camera equipped with high end assault rifles and hand grenades. Then again, they had their reasons thanks to attacks from the White Fang and intrusions from DedSec.

"This new security is no joke, but I need access. I'm gonna find who's targeting Nicky. I want that voice behind that phone call," Aiden spoke to himself. He pulled his neckwarmer over his face and stepped out of the car and walked across the street. He was glad that even though he didn't have access to the ctOS system in Dust Fortune, whenever he was close to a ctOS Center, he always got a connection to it, thus giving him access to the center and was able to use them to get into the area. He looked at the gate of the ctOS Center and opened his Profiler on his phone. He saw that there was a connection to the gate and smirked. But before he placed his finger on the screen, he saw a couple boxes stacked up on one another going over the fence. "That's useful for a distraction." He got over to the boxes and climbed up on them. He looked at the gate and placed his finger on the screen. The gate rose up from the ground and just as he predicted, a couple guards walked over to the gate to investigate. Aiden vaulted over the fence and landed on the other side. "I'm in. Now to find the guard with the access code."

Aiden climbed up into the unfinished wall of the building and quickly slide into cover with his phone in his left and his nightstick in his right. He poked his head out above the pile of wooden planks and saw another security camera. He just hacked into the camera and snooped around after Profiling half of the guards in the compound. "I just need the access codes and I can just hack into the damn system already," Aiden quietly cursed to himself. He saw a guard coming up the stairs and lean on the wall for a quick smoke. He looked at his phone and grinned when he saw the words. He hacked into the guard's frequency and got a hold on the codes. He got out of the camera and went back into the Profiler to look for a weak point in the compound. He groaned when it was actually the guard he hacked the codes from with the access point behind him. "Shit. I gotta get rid of him somehow." He looked over the cover again and saw that there was plenty of cover. He quickly ran from cover to cover, avoiding the guard's gaze. He got closer and closer to the guard and the access point. He was right behind the guard who was so oblivious despite being a hardened soldier from combat. He gripped tightly on his nightstick before vaulting over the wooden planks and ran towards him. He grabbed the guard from behind and threw him to the ground to his back. Just before he could even let out an "eep", Aiden brought his nightstick down hard into his face making him blackout.

He let out a satisfied sigh before looking at the small router on the wall. "Alright, let's delve in," he said as he hacked into the ctOS box. His phone lit up with a series of white lines and the router to the main core router room. Seeing how there wasn't as much lines in the firewall, he suspected that the security of the system here wasn't as set up well because of the current construction going on for the building. _"CtOS thought that no one would even think of going into a construction site to do anything except either build or demolish."_

After breaching several small firewalls interconnecting to each other, he broke through the last one and connected himself into a security camera that was in the router room. "I'm in. Now, to hack into the router and get access to ctOS. BadBoy will be able to find the caller's location and I can be able to clear the foggy data cloud of this district and use the Profiler better." He pointed the camera at the main router and wirelessly hacked into the router. He felt his phone vibrate meaning that the hack was a success in the router. That meant he was now connected into the system and yet was invisible to the ctOS Network and won't know that there was an intrusion inside the system. "That's it..." He went to his contacts and phoned BadBoy. "I've hacked in," he announced to the DedSec hacker.

"What, you mean- you're in the ctOS? Already?" BadBoy asked in disbelief when he heard that.

Aiden smirked behind his mask as he looked by a corner to see if there was any other guard coming his way. "I'm looking at the network as we speak. You've got your access. And I've got mine. My Profiler's system's online, and at the touch of a button, I've gotten everybody's nasty little secrets in the palm of my hand. And this thing is highlighting all kinds of things in the district." He then grinned widely for a second. "I could take advantage of some of this."

"Hey, I want to tell you to keep an eye out for online traffic, Aiden. There could be fixers in the network as well," BadBoy told him.

"If I can see them, they can see me," Aiden muttered out. "All right, I gotta move, I made a lotta noise by now in the network."

"Give me time to track your caller. I'll be in touch," BadBoy said before disconnecting.

Aiden slide his phone into his pocket and went through the unfinished building. "All right, I better leave now. I don't want to be picked off by the guards here."

* * *

_Garnet Heights Apartments..._

A small beeping was heard in a small shady apartment room with an alert to it. Footsteps were heard when a feminine figure appeared in the light of a black Scroll on the kitchen table. She looked at the screen to see that there was a high level of network activity in the ctOS Network.

"This is interesting," the figure said as she started to pinpoint who the hacker was. She traced the line of data to the construction site of the new ctOS Center in Dust Fortune. She decided to hack into the recordings of the security cameras and went to the time when the Center was breached. She kept on running through the footage until she saw a figure run across a hallway before knocking a guard out. "Who's that?" She zoomed in on the video and frowned when the image was blurry. "Not a problem." She began to clear the image of the footage and a smirk formed on the edges of her lips. "So, the Vigilante is responsible for this intrusion? You may trust BadBoy, Pearce, but not all of DedSec is fond of you," the figure said to herself. She decided to keep tabs on Aiden's activities and sat back. "If you get a phone call or try to hack into something, I'll know."

* * *

_Hawkens Motel, Grimm Square District, a couple days after hacking into the ctOS Center..._

"So, I heard that your summer break is almost on," Aiden said into his phone holding it between his right shoulder and cheek while he was piecing his pistol back together after he striped it down part for part and cleaned them separately.

"Yeah, I can't wait for it to start," Velvet's voice happily replied from the other side.

Aiden smiled as he locked the parts together before grabbing a magazine. He grabbed a handful of bullets from a pouch on his nightstand and began to load them into the magazine of the pistol. "That's great, Vel, can't wait until you're out." He slotted the maximum bullet into the magazine and loaded it into his M9 Pistol and pulled it back. He placed it on "safe" before grabbing another magazine and handful of bullets. "So, you think you might me busy during the break?" he asked her.

"No, I don't think so. I'm just going to stay at my parents place for the break," Velvet replied to the hacker with slight depression in her voice.

"Hmmm, maybe I can drop by and I can hang out with you at your place," Aiden said to her as he placed the magazines beside him as they filled up fast.

"That'd be great! And Aiden? I miss you."

"I miss you too, Vel." Aiden felt his phone vibrating and took it off from his shoulder and looked at it to see it was Jordi. "Hey, Velvet, I gotta take another call. I'll talk to you soon. I love you."

"Love you too," Velvet said to him.

Aiden cut the connection to her call and took Jordi's call. "Jordi, what is it? Did our "friend" talk yet?" he asked his friend/fixer if there was any progression with the shooter.

"No, not really. I come back to his place and I see him squirming around like a flopping fish in his guest room, so I need to move him. He just keeps saying he's sorry and all but I don't think that's what you want, right?" Jordi said to the hacker.

"Obviously. You called me for a reason," Aiden said to him.

"You're right, Pearce. I need you to cover something for me."

Aiden was probably going to regret asking him what it was. "What is it?"

"Good, glad you asked. I lined up a lucrative deal with a very demanding client and he needs a driver."

Only one word ran through Aiden's mind as he said the answer to Jordi. "NO."

"Well here's the thing. I need to move Maurice out so now I could pass this problem to you since he's really your problem. But that's not my style. I always finish what I start. And all I'm asking of you.." Jordi explained to Aiden.

"All right, fine. I'll handle it," Aiden said with annoyance.

"Well, don't let me push you out, my good friend. It's obvious you don't want to take this favour."

"I said I'll handle it. What's the job exactly?" the hacker asked him as he stood up from his bed and holstered his pistol and grabbed the magazines and put them into a small pouch behind his trench coat.

"Glad that you're so enthusiastic, Pearce. It's a delivery job. Gotta move some guy. I mean, how hard is that?" Jordi said humorlessly. "Just keep in mind my reputation is on the line here. He's paying top dollar for the best driver in Vale," he said seriously.

Aiden chuckled at his friend before walking out to the door. "Well he's in luck."

"Alright, you should find him back in Dust Fortune. Oh yeah, if you have anything else to wear, I suggest you should. Don't question me back, I gotta go. I'll be in touch," Jordi said before cutting off.

"_Typical Jordi."_

* * *

_Dust Fortune, mid-afternoon..._

Aiden was back in his white sports car as he drove down the streets of the business district of Vale. The hacker wasn't up for doing fixer contracts all the time, but they did provide both money and something to do when nothing was happening. BadBoy hasn't contacted him yet about the call yet and all's been quite for the past couple days. Aiden had a hunch that the job he took from Jordi wasn't gonna end well, in a way. But even though the sadistic fixer was like that, he knew his limits and gave jobs he knew only Aiden would take, regardless how insane it was.

Of course, hacking was more useful now thanks to hacking into the ctOS Center prior to now. It was easy as loading a clip into his pistol in his words. Hacking of course was pretty easy for Aiden since he's been on computers since he was seven and his dad being a hacker he was before things went down the drain. As the hacker drove down the street past minimal traffic, his phone started blaring out in panic. Taking his phone out and giving it a look he let out an irritated sigh. "Shit, someones trying to hack into me. I made too much noise in Dust Fortune. I gotta shut this person down before I can take that job Jordi's giving me."

Without thinking, Aiden started to trace the origin of the one who was trying to hack into him. But he never shook off the feeling that someone was watching him. When the hacker looked forward, something caught his eyes. Someone was standing on top of a building. Her waist long ebony hair flew in the breeze along with her white weathered trench coat. Before Aiden could start thinking, the traffic lights in front off him went green as soon as they turned red. His eyes darted back to the street and he slammed his foot on the brake. He gripped hard at the wheel as he turned it to the right. His car turned as the wheels started to leave out small trails of white smoke as the car skidded towards the intersection. Aiden saw that there were other cars going through the green lights of the intersection. He knew that he would get caught in the crossfire of the impending crashes that will happen. He took in a deep breath and closed his eyes as he braced himself.

He felt the shockwave of the car colliding with another car as his body went forward. He was thankful that his seatbelt was on or he would've flown forward into the windshield. His eyes remained closed as he felt the car tumble around, keeping himself affixed on the seat. The car slowly stopped tumbling and then became still. "I hope Jordi won't mind if I send him the bill for this," Aiden muttered out. He opened his eyes and saw that he was upside down. The hacker gritted his teeth and moved his hand to the seatbelt. He pressed on the button and was released and landed on his back. "Ow." He looked at the driver's seats window and saw that it was considerably cracked. He spun around on his back until his feet were placed on the glass before reeling a foot back. He snapped his foot forward and his heel made contact with it, making larger cracks on the glass but not breaking it yet. He did this a few more times and the glass shattered on the fourth kick. He carefully crawled out of the car and shakily stood up. He was slightly disoriented but his vision was still clear. He shook his head and bumped it lightly before looking up at the building he saw the figure on.

To simply put it, she was gone.

"_Okay, who the hell was that? Did someone send a fixer for my head? Most likely. Those guys operate on the grid. I should be more careful next time when I do that sort of level of activity on the network." _His phone chimed when it found the trace of the hacker that tried to break into his phone. His phone immediately profiled the hacker and some interesting facts came up about her.

**Name: Cynthia Axe**

**Gender: Female**

**Known DedSec hacktivisit **

**Age: 19**

**Occupation: Unknown**

**Income: Unknown**

**Has taken responsibility for the citywide blackout two years ago resulting in the death of 23 citizens. No charge have been made.**

**Lives in Garnet Heights Apartments. Warrants have been put out for her but no arrest attempts made after the first attempt ended in failure due to several unknown number of traps and IEDs surround the location.**

Aiden scrunched his face in confusion. He knew that DedSec was checking him out since he employed a DedSec hacker for some support. He hasn't done anything to them and clearly they won't do anything bad to him. But this? A DedSec hacker was trying to break into his phone. Question is, why?

His phone rang and he stared at it. The caller ID was blocked. Not bothering to hack into the caller to see who it is, he answered it. "Who is it?"

"Cynthia is superior. Aiden is inferior. Down with the Vigilante," a disoriented voice creepily replied before hanging up.

Aiden looked at his phone and shook his head. "Yesh. Who the hell is that?"

He decided to give BadBoy a call about this since the DedSec hacker was high up in the group. But before doing so, he made his way into an alleyway so he was out of sight of the hacker. He called BadBoy and waited for a moment. The call was answered by an irritated groan from the other side. "What is it? I've been bothered all day yesterday and if you're wondering about the call, I'm still working on it. So-"

"One of your people has attempted to hack into me, BadBoy," Aiden cut in sternly.

"What?"

"You heard me. A DedSec hacker tried to break into my phone."

There was silence between the two for a good moment. BadBoy took in a sigh and said, "Who? Your Profiler would've gotten who it was if you traced it."

"I already did. Some girl named Cynthia Axe, you know her?" Aiden asked the DedSec hacker.

Another moment of silence engulfed the two. "I-I'm sorry, I can't really help you with her," BadBoy replied.

This shocked the vigilante. This was a first for him. BadBoy never backed down from a task needing to be done. "Wait? What do you mean?"

"Cynthia's... a bit better in some areas of hacker than me," BadBoy admitted to Aiden quietly.

"What? You're serious? I... what is she like in DedSec?" Aiden asked.

"She's a lone wolf type. She doesn't really like working with other people."

"That's great. Has anyone hired her to do this to me?" Aiden questioned.

"As far as I can tell, no. You've made a name for yourself out there, Aiden. Some people want you dead."

"Then why is she-?"

"Perhaps when we were breaking into the ctOS Center a couple days ago, she might have saw your trace in the system. If she isn't hired by anybody, she would harass skilled hackers for fun," BadBoy explained to the fuming hacker.

Aiden took in a deep breath and let out a long sigh. "Alright. So, is there anyway in trying to stop her?"

"Well, you could pay her, but that would mean you'd pay her top dollar."

"Is there another way? Because last time I checked, I don't have that much money with me," Aiden said angrily.

"Apparently she'll take a bouquet of twenty-three roses. No one knows why but she'll take it and do whatever she wants for you."

"Roses? That... never mind. I'm gonna go see her. And please let me know when you traced that call. Thank you," Aiden said and disconnected. He leaned on a brick wall and closed his eyes. "My life gets more crazier by the minute," he whispered to himself.

* * *

_A few hours later, Garnet Heights Apartments, evening..._

Cynthia was lying down on her couch in her apartment. She was giving the ceiling a blank stare with her mouth open, silently saying incoherent words to herself. She giggled to herself when she remembered the car crash she caused to Aiden and she smiled. "Oh, he did not see that coming. It was fun." She was wearing black high heels accompanied by dark black jeans, a pink belt with a golden chain hanging off of it, a black/ navy blueish shirt with a logo of DedSec, and a white trench coat that is very worn and torn in various places.

Despite being 19 years old, she was one of the best hackers in DedSec and often clashed with BadBoy at times to make her look like an idiot. But when it cam to life outside of hacking, she was pretty innocent. She would often blank out or forgetting what something is. For example, she may forget what she is doing for a moment or not understand what something is.

She tensed up when she heard a knock on her door. _"What? This doesn't make any sense. I placed traps and explosives around here. No one could've been able to get past the sensors. My Scroll would've alerted me of an intrusion. Who could've done this. Ooooohhh, Clara, if you had something to do with this, I swear I'll hack into your personal archives and spread them publicly."_

The knock kept on going for a minute until it ceased. Cynthia let out a relieved sigh. What she didn't expect was her door being bashed open and falling to the ground. "Eep!" she squeaked and went behind the arm of the couch and poked her head over to see who it was. Her heart thumped faster when she saw the familiar brown trench coat and dark grey mask on the figure's face.

Aiden cracked his neck side to side and faced down at the DedSec hacker in front of him. He pulled out his phone and profiled her again. "Cynthia Axe. How's it going?' he asked her as if he hasn't done anything.

"What?" Cynthia squeaked out as she shrunk behind the couch more.

Aiden walked towards the couch and sighed. "I was being nice here. I was asking how are you, Cynthia," he asked her again. Aiden saw her reaching for her Scroll on the coffee table beside the couch and didn't do anything to stop her. She grabbed it as she stared holes into his head.

"What do you want, Pearce?" Cynthia snarled at him.

Aiden walked around the couch still staring at his phone. "Oh, nothing, nothing. I was just in the neighbourhood and decided to drop on by."

"Stop playing games with me. You're here for something," Cynthia said to him.

Aiden turned to her and placed his hand on his neckwarmer. He pulled it down and faced her down. "You're dead right on that." He leaned on the wall with a small smirk on his face. "I want you to stop annoying me before I take you down," he said calmly.

Cynthia laughed softly at the vigilante in front of her. "Oh, my dear Aiden Pearce. You can't tell me what to do."

"Which is why I got you these." Aiden walked back to the door and went into the hallway. He came back after a couple seconds with a bouquet of red roses, a total of 23, and showed them to her. "So, I give you these and in return, will you stop harassing me and help me out?" he offered her. Cynthia walked over to him and looked at the flowers he had in hand. She slowly reached towards them and almost had a finger touch the petals but Aiden pulled them away. "Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, deal?" he said to her.

Cynthia reached for the flowers again and took them giving him a small glare before smiling at him. She took in a small inhale on the scent of the roses and nodded. "Okay, deal."

Aidne nodded at her and turned back to the door. "Good to know we're on the same page now." He walked towards the fallen door. He picked it up and placed it on the wall gently. "You should call someone to fix that. I'll be in touch."

* * *

**Qrow's look comes from NaijMizuho's version of him. Couldn't come up with anything else so give her some credit.**

**Cynthia Axe is an OC of Dagger of Faith. Thank you Faith!**

_Chapter 5 sneak peak..._

"Jordi, seriously, are you insane?!" Aiden shouted into his phone as he drove down the road with frustration. He had a long day and he didn't wanted to be pissed off or he would've hacked into the tv monitors and would a recording saying that Jordi Chin is a dickhead.

"Calm down, Pearce. It was just a job," Jordi replied back.

"You thought that I would be alright working for a criminal that is highly wanted?" Aiden retorted back. "Next time if you got a contract set up with Torchwick, tell me so I can say no."


	5. Chapter 5: Jordi's Job

Chapter 5

_A few hours after encountering Cynthia, evening..._

Aiden let a sigh pass through his nose as he left the apartment complex Cynthia lived in. He hopped on the motorcycle he recently obtained from the car-on- demand app thanks to Jordi. He turned the engine on as he took the stand off it that kept it in balance. It roared to life with the engine letting out a sharp crack as it came on. He revved it a bit before driving off from the curb towards the job Jordi gave him.

"_That went more smoother than I thought. Cynthia... I know she isn't a bad person... she... she's just someone that can get bored easily. I'm just glad that she ins't on my ass anymore. Still... it's hard to see how someone like her actually became an expert hacker and a part of DedSec. Life is becoming weird these days. Now I can do the job that Jordi gave me."_

Aiden stopped in front of a red light as he got caught in the rush hour of the time. Night has fallen by then after he visited Cynthia. More to say a couple hours have passed. The Hacker hoped that the job was still open for him. He knew that even the slightest of time being late proved fatal.

His phone started ringing snapping him out of his previous thoughts. He answered it anyway. "Yeah?"

"Oh, hey Aiden..."

Aiden was surprised by this. It was Cynthia calling him. He read her profile on his Profiler and it said she wasn't fond of socializing with people. "It's surprising to hear from you," he replied to the shy DedSec hacker.

A dry chuckle was heard from her. "Just because I don't like people in general doesn't mean I won't talk to them."

Aiden rolled his eyes. The light turned green and he started to drive off towards his destination. "So, why're you calling me, Cynthia?" Aiden asked her before turning a corner.

"Well, please don't hurt me for doing this, but while you were in my apartment room, I sorta hacked into your phone," Cynthia squeaked at him.

The Hacker's eyes widened when he heard that, almost making him lose control of the motorcycle. "You did what?" His voice clear with demand in it.

"I-I didn't snoop too far into it, I swear! All I did was look up the coordinates you've been given by this Jordi Chin guy," Cynthia replied back whimpering at his tone.

"And I thought you weren't gonna be on my ass anymore?" Aiden questioned.

"That was before you gave me the roses, Pearce," Cynthia shot back. "Anyway, I found out that you're supposed to be getting some fugitive. It seems like he tripped an alarm while trying to hack into something himself. If you go down to Whirlrun Drive on Second Street, he appears to be in a garage in an alleyway."

Aiden raised an eyebrow at the shy hacker in question as he skidded down the street near his other coordinates. "So you found out where this guy is for me? That's very kind of you, Cynthia," Aiden chuckled at her.

"Well, let's just say that it's a thank you for giving me those roses and for not takking me in," Cynthia answered back before cutting the connection.

Aiden sighed and shook his head. "I'll never get girls at times. Hell, I could barely understand what Ruby and Yang are going through at times when we were little."

A few minutes passed by and Aiden reached an empty parking lot near an condo complex. "Huh? This is where Jordi told me to go thanks to his directions." He waited for a bit sitting on his motorcycle and fiddling with his hat. His phone then rang and he looked at who it was. "Guess this is him." He answered the call and put the phone to his ear. "Yeah?"

"Where the fuck you've been! Everything! Everything has gone to shit! Fuck man, fuck! I'm telling you, it has all gone to shit!" The caller complained at him.

Aiden sighed at this. _"Great. More crabby assholes to drive." _"I'm on my way," the Hacker replied to him.

"Hurry, man! The cops are gonna find me! Hurry your ass over here!"

The call disconnected and he placed his his hands on the handles of the motorcycle and his head in the middle of it. "I'm probably going to regret this decision I made for Jordi."

* * *

_Ten minutes later..._

Aiden was driving down to the location Cynthia gave him earlier, which has proved very useful to him. His motorcycle sped down the streets before swerving into the alleyway the fugitive was in. He followed the G.P.S until it chimed when he reached the garage. He got off the motorcycle and pulled his neckwarmer up. Aiden hacked into the controls for the gate for the garage and opened the door. He walked inside and the first thing he saw was a black sedan, riddled with bullets here and there on the hood and sides.

Aiden walked in a little more to the side of the car. He sensed someone was in the car. Taking a couple steps more, he saw someone rise up from the backseats with a shotgun pointed at him. "I hope you have an invitation or you're dead," the guy told him.

"_This must be my guy." _Aiden walked towards the window and glared at him for a few seconds. "I'm the driver," he simply answered.

The fugitive sighed in relief and placed the shotgun down. "Fuck man, what took you so long?"

"I had a date to go to," the Hacker attempted in amusement. Clearly it didn't work.

"Yeah, hope your girl had a good time. You got a car? My car is shot to hell," he asked Aiden, all the while panicking slightly.

Aiden smirked behind his mask slightly. It humoured him when he was given some power. "Nope. My rules, your car. That't the job I was given."

The fugitive groaned in protest before nodding. "Ugh, alright, well come on, man. Let's go!"

Said guy opened the locks to allow Aiden to get into the car. The Hacker opened the door to the driver seat and sat himself in. He closed the door and placed the car in drive since the keys were already in. "For a hired hacker, you're doing an excellent job of being caught and tripping the alarms."

"Hey, you weren't hired to make jokes with me, man! You're supposed to be getting me outta here!"

Aiden rolled his eyes and drove out of the garage. "I got it."

* * *

A few minutes passed by after exiting the garage. And they were under pursuit by cops. Aiden cursed silently to himself when he didn't have any Jam-Coms to disrupt the police's ctOS Scan. It was searching for the fugitive, and now he was part of the mess.

"They said you were the best driver!" Kaz, the fugitive, shouted at him.

"Sometimes the best screw up!" Aiden shouted back as his foot was slammed down on the gas pedal. The blaring of the police sirens and screeching of tires were prevalent as he sped down the streets.

"V.P.D, pull over or we will take you down with force!" a speaker shouted out from the lead police car. There was a total of three cars pursuing them.

"They're gaining closer!" Kaz panicked.

"I know! Just relax!" Aiden saw that there was a some police blockers beyond some traffic lights a couple blocks away. With an idea popping into his head, he drove straight down the street towards the intersection.

"Buddy! You're gonna get us killed!" Kaz panicked louder.

"I know what I'm doing," Aiden replied calmly. As they approached the intersection, Aiden activated his Semblance. He took out his phone and turned it on to his various hacks. He moved it over to traffic lights and had his thumb hovering over the screen. As he was halfway through the intersection, he tapped on the screen. The traffic lights started going crazy for a but before turning all green. The police cars behind him soon got into the middle of said intersection. Two of them were caught in the crossfire of the crashing cars from the hacked traffic light. The other one was still on their heels.

"There's still one on our backs!"

Aiden shot his head at Kaz and glared at him. "Would you shut up?!" he snapped. Aiden sped towards the police blockers and grinned as they passed over it. Before the police car could even drive past, Aiden hacked into the blockers and they jutted up. A loud crash was heard when the car crashed into the blockers. Aiden drove out of the sight of the police and into an alleyway. He turned off the engines and leaned back into his seat. He raised his phone to his face and saw that the police decided to let go of the pursuit. "We lost them."

Kaz was relived and threw his hands up in joy. "Oh fuck man, they said you were good. You did it."

"Yeah, but you kept on wailing like a baby while we were being chased. Next time, just be calm," Aiden shot back at him before turning the car back on and proceeded to the drop off.

* * *

_Half an hour later..._

The car neared the drop off location after avoiding other incidents. Aiden took in a deep breath as they approached the alleyway for the said drop off location.

"Okay... were here. We did it. There's some guys meeting us. Don't fuck it up now," Kaz told the Hacker.

"Wouldn't dream of it," Aiden sighed as they pulled into the alleyway.

As the car drove in, they saw a car parked in the alley with two figures. When the lights flashed on them, Aiden widened his eyes as his palms gripped on the wheel. Kaz saw this and stiffened at this. "What the fuck? That's... Roman Torchwick. Why's the boss meeting us?" he asked.

Aiden stopped the car and put it into parking. He struggled to keep his composure since Roman was the one he kept on thwarting on Dust heists and such. "He's not meeting us," he replied to Kaz. "He's meeting you."

Kaz gulped as he grabbed the laptop beside him and went out the door. He timidly walked towards the criminal. "Look, boss, someone knew, I swear I don't know what happened. There wasn't supposed to be anybody. I-I mean it's just a simple computer plant, right? Then I just turn around and the damn alarm's going off... The cops came so fast!. I-I didn't know what to-"

Kaz was then cut off when he heard Roman chuckling at him. The criminal took a long drag on his cigar and exhaled it out with a faint white cloud coming out. "Shhh. Calm down there. It's all over now," Roman calmly stated to Kaz.

Kaz sighed in relief and showed him the laptop. "I got it at least, right?" he told Roman. "That's what matters, right?"

Roman was quite for a bit as the subtle glow of his cigar brightened a bit as he leaned on his cane. "That's what matters. That's how it goes, my friend. There's not much room for fuck ups or idiots." Roman looked at the black suited man beside him and nodded. The man came over and took the laptop from Kaz before heading towards the car.

Roman began to walk towards the car Aiden was in. He eyed the Hacker very closely as Aiden stared back at him with no emotion in his eyes. "Oh! I get that, Mr. Torchwick, I really, really, do. But it wasn't my fuck up though. It wasn't!" Kaz explained to him.

Roman turned around and looked at Kaz for a moment. He placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled. "Listen, I told you to calm down. Everything is fine." Kaz nodded at him as he was breathing deeply. "Calm now?" Roman asked after a couple moments. Kaz nodded again at him to respond. Roman came closer and looked sternly at him. "Did you get a chance to talk to you mom?" Kaz looked up at Roman and his eyes narrowed. "Call you buddies? Your girl?"

"No sir, I was in a hurry," Kaz answered quickly.

Roman patted his shoulder and laughed. "Good. Very good." He then looked at the suited man and nodded slightly.

Kaz widened his eyes. He quickly turned around to see that the man had a pistol being taken out from his coat. Kaz grabbed the arm that held the pistol and threw it up before the shots could be fired. A couple went off and Kaz punched him in the face before pushing him away. "Boss, I can explain- Ahhh!"

Roman had his cigar in Kaz's right eye and pushed it in deeper. Kaz was groaning in pain as his eye was being burnt from the cigar. He fell on the ground and held his eye, whimpering in pain. The man recovered from the punch and walked over to Kaz before shooting him point blank over the head and the body a few times.

Roman walked over to the driver seat of the car and leaned on it, looking at Aiden. The Hacker looked away from him refusing to make eye contact with him. "Hey, tell your friend thanks for this. And to look you up when I need... Another delivery," he told him. Aiden just nodded and placed the car in reverse, going out of the alleyway. Roman tipped his bowler hat at him. The car disappeared and he sighed. "Well, you are hard to look at, Vigilante. But I that doesn't mean you're impossible to break."

* * *

_With Aiden..._

"_Roman fucking Torchwick. That man has been preying on Vale since I was a kid. I could've done a huge favour for Vale by placing a bullet between his eyes. But that's what I've been staying away from. It always comes back hard... I can't let that happen again." _

Aiden's phone started ringing. He looked at his phone and a scowl grew on his face at the caller ID. He reluctantly answered it anyway. "Hey, how did it go? You finish that job yet?" Jordi asked.

"Jordi, seriously, are you insane?!" Aiden shouted into his phone as he drove down the road with frustration. He had a long day and he didn't wanted to be pissed off or he would've hacked into the tv monitors and place a recording saying that Jordi Chin is a dickhead.

"Calm down, Pearce. It was just a job," Jordi replied back.

"You thought that I would be alright working for a criminal that is highly wanted?" Aiden retorted back. "Next time if you got a contract set up with Torchwick, tell me so I can say no."

"A paycheck is a paycheck. Pearce, you've gotta start separating the morals from the moola. Listen, I can hook you up with my guy. He'll find better gigs for ya," Jordi explained.

"Yeah sure, I dunno if I'll take them... but give him my name," Aiden replied.

Jordi chuckled at him. "Who says no to extra cash? Oh, and since you asked, Maurice is doing nice in his new abode."

The call was disconnected and Aiden shook his head. One day, Jordi, one day..."

* * *

_A couple days later, Hawkens Motel, Grimm Square District..._

Aiden was asleep in his bed trying to get some hours of sleep in that he usually missed at times during the eleven months. He was thrashing about trying to find a comfortable position to stay in. Before he could find a good spot, his phone rang. His eyes snapped open and he looked at the nightstand. He grabbed it and looked. It was BadBoy. He answered it. "Yeah?"

"We need to meet."

Aiden was surprised at this. After a days of waiting, this was the first thing BadBoy says to him? "Meet? What, face to face? Should I look for a guy with a mask?" he asked sarcastically.

"No mask. Just follow my signal," BadBoy replied.

"I thought you'd never wanted to meet in person?"

"I don't... But we need to meet... come by as soon as you can..."

The call disconnected and Aiden placed his phone down. "So, BadBoy finally wants to meet, huh? This is gonna be interesting."

* * *

**After a long time, I finally updated this. I'm currently going through a huge writers block right now. That's one of the reasons why this chapter was short. Sorry for that. I'll try to make it more longer in the next chapter.**

**And the other stories I have that I haven't updated? I am continuing them. I may take them down and rewrite them later on. Hope you understand that.**

* * *

_Chapter 6 sneak peek..._

"BadBoy17?" Aiden asked one of the people down in the subway station underground.

"Huh?" the guy asked.

Aiden sighed before nodding. "BadBoy17."

The man looked at him like he was crazy. "What the fuck man?"

Aiden was confused for a moment before seeing the screen in front of him go crazy. **BEHIND YOU**

Aiden turned around to see someone in the shadows. "BadBoy17?"

The person walked forward into the light. Aiden observed her carefully. She has long brown hair with white highlights cut into a mohawk like style that stops about shoulder length. She wears silver flesh tunnels in both ears and has three facial piercings. She had black eyeliner with a touch of eyeshadow. She also has tattoos on her upper chest, neck and arms. She was wearing a low-cut, black top and above, she wears a black, short-sleeve leather jacket. The cleavage area slightly revealing a black bra. She also had a long necklace and a number of wrist bangles and accessories.

But what was very clear on her was a pair of brown fox ears on top of her head along with a brown fox tail just over the pants. "Clara."


End file.
